Cairns starts on Edinburgh return

WHILE Andy Robinson has resisted the temptation to ring the changes ahead of Saturday's Heineken Cup clash against Castres in the south of France, it is clear that the two alterations he has made to Edinburgh's starting XV reflect his frustration at the team's bitterly disappointing home defeat to Leinster last weekend.

Behind the scrum, Ben Cairns has been parachuted straight back into the side after eight weeks out with a knee ligament injury, in an effort to add some potency to the team's misfiring attack. "I thought it was important that we brought that cutting edge back into our backline, and he is an outstanding centre," explained the Edinburgh coach.

Meanwhile, in the pack, Matt Mustchin has been dropped from the squad completely as punishment for needlessly being sin-binned with fifteen minutes to go after tripping Leinster wing Rob Kearney. That incident happened just after Chris Paterson had slotted a penalty to pull Edinburgh to within eight points of their opponents. Craig Hamilton starts in his place.

"I was really disappointed with Matt being sin-binned at the weekend in that manner, so we felt it was the right call to leave him out for one match," said Robinson. "He's not a dirty player, but it was right for us to make a statement.

"If you trip somebody on the pitch the law actually states that you should be sent off, so Matt has accepted the punishment. He has apologised and I can't fault the way he has responded, but I think it is important that as a squad we do make a statement and we do have standards.

"We are lacking consistency in our performances, we are making silly errors, and we are being punished for that. We need everybody on the same wavelength, so while that was one isolated incident it is the sort of thing that can have an effect on the result, and in that last ten minutes it stopped us from putting any pressure on Leinster when we were still in the game."

Robinson had made little effort to disguise his fury on Saturday evening at the ease with which his charges had allowed Leinster to help themselves to four soft tries during an appalling 17 minute spell towards the end of the first half. Having had a few days to reflect, he was in a more philosophical frame of mind yesterday.

"It wasn't the same people making all the errors," said Robinson. "I thought the forwards stepped up to the plate last week and really took Leinster on, but it was because of the forwards that we lost the game because they are the guys who missed the tackles which enabled them to get behind us.

"For the rest of the game I thought we controlled them pretty well defensively and our shape was pretty good – we actually made more line-breaks than they did – and these are the sorts of things you have to consider when you think about making lots of changes. It is about getting consistency in performance and the only way we are going to do that is by guys being able to front up the next week and being able to eradicate the mistakes."

Cairns, who made his international debut against Argentina during the summer, has not played since tearing the medial ligament in his left knee during Edinburgh's pre-season friendly against Wasps in mid-August, but despite this lack of match practice he says he is ready to hit the ground running.

"I've been back in training with the guys since the end of last week and I have trained fully from Monday in some pretty physical sessions which have definitely tested the knee. It has been fine, so I'm feeling really confident and ready to go," he said.

His return to the fold comes at the expense of fellow internationalist Hugo Southwell, who has slotted in at outside centre during the last three weeks but has now dropped out of the squad completely. Robinson was keen to stress that his exclusion from the bench was due to John Houston's greater versatility.

"Hugo's attitude has been spot on," insisted Robinson. "He put his hand up to slot in at 13 when he could easily have said 'no' to playing out of position. He's given it his best shot, and it is unfortunate for him that he is going to miss out in this game, but he will soon be back again competing for his place in the team at full-back."

FACT BOX

EDINBURGH TEAM

15 Chris Paterson
14 Mark Robertson
13 Ben Cairns
12 Nick De Luca
11 Simon Webster
10 Phil Godman
9 Mike Blair (captain)
1 Allan Jacobsen
2 Ross Ford
3 Geoff Cross
4 Craig Hamilton
5 Jim Hamilton
6 Scott Newlands
7 Alan MacDonald
8 Allister Hogg

Substitutes: A Kelly, G Kerr, B Gissing, S Cross, G Laidlaw, D Blair, J Houston.