Edinburgh Squad named to clip wings of Aironi

Having kicked off their Heineken Cup campaign with back-to-back wins over London Irish and Racing Metro, the club are keen to bring their European form into domestic business.

The capital club defeated the Italians home and away last season but left Parma in September with a losing bonus point, secured by the boot of then debutante Harry Leonard (25-19).

Now, with home advantage over a side sitting at the foot of the table, head coach Michael Bradley has called on his players to build on their home form.

"We've spoken about how we owe Aironi one. We do not want to lose twice to them in the one season and obviously to achieve that we have to beat them on Friday night so there's a lot of determination among the players to win this game and put the record straight," said Bradley.

"This match is all about points in the RaboDirect PRO12. Currently we're too low down the table to reflect the talent that we have here so we have a serious day of work ahead of us on Friday and we're looking forward to it."

The famous 48-47 win over Racing Metro a fortnight was watched by the biggest crowd of the season, with the club confirming that 5809 supporters took in the memorable night at Murrayfield.

Now, with Friday's game already outselling this season's largest crowd in domestic competition (v Munster, 3467) by over 600, Friday's match against Aironi is building up to be another great night.

"We have to back up our Heineken Cup performances in the RaboDirect PRO12 but there's a confidence about the side and an appreciation about the type of rugby we can play so hopefully the fans coming out in numbers will continue and we'll start generating something special here at Murrayfield," Bradley added.

With the west stand supporters' bar in the Presidents' Suite unavailable for the next two home games (v Aironi and Cardiff Blues) as existing bookings are honoured, fans will be welcomed into the north stand supporters' bar, located in the Rowan Suite (third floor).

The west stand supporters' bar will be back with a bang for the club's 1872 Cup derby match against city rivals Glasgow Warriors, on Boxing Day, and will continue in the New Year at the RaboDirect PRO12 match against Ulster (Friday 6 January) and throughout the rest of the season.

Edinburgh Rugby provisional 27-man squad: Mike Blair, Tom Brown, Sean Cox, Geoff Cross, Nick De Luca, David Denton, Ross Ford, Grant Gilchrist, Phil Godman, Roddy Grant, Allan Jacobsen, John Houston, Lee Jones, James King, Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN, Steven Lawrie, Chris Leck, Harry Leonard, Esteban Lozada, Stuart McInally, Lewis Niven, Chris Paterson, Ross Rennie, Netani Talei, Steven Turnbull, Kyle Traynor, Tim Visser
Not available through injury: Ben Cairns (knee), Andrew Kelly (knee), Jim Thompson (knee), Alan MacDonald (shoulder)