Solomons: Toolis can use club form as Scotland springboard

Edinburgh will be looking to extend their three-game winning run when they face-off with Ulster tonight, having recorded an impressive 24-16 win over the table-topping Ospreys last week to follow on from successes against Glasgow Warriors and Connacht.

Second row Toolis is set to start this evening's BT Murrayfield clash, and with the recent injury to Scotland regular Richie Gray, the 22-year-old could be in with a shout of featuring for the national side when they take on Italy next weekend.

And a PRO12 run out for Toolis will provide an important step towards that first cap while colleagues like Tim Swinson and Jim Hamilton are rested, according to Solomons.

"He hasn't played for a while - if he didn't play this weekend it would be his fourth week without rugby," Solomons told the Scotsman.

"He's a young guy in his first professional season so he needs quite a bit of game time.

"I think the Italy match would definitely be the ideal time to play him.

"He is an absolutely outstanding athlete. He's a combination of an athletic lock and an enforcer lock.

"He's physical; he's got tremendous work rate; he's highly intelligent; he calls the lineouts.

"He has got a massive future I think."

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