Edinburgh aim to add to Leinster's Murrayfield woes

ANDY ROBINSON will use Edinburgh's victories over previous Heineken Cup-winning sides as a spur for his team when Leinster visit Murrayfield on Saturday (kick-off 1.35pm).

Edinburgh have beaten six of the eight teams who have won the championship - Toulouse, Wasps, Ulster, Northampton, Leicester and Munster - and have twice defeated Leinster in recent campaigns.

However, the former England flanker told Scotland's Evening News his team would lose if they performed the way they did over the last two weeks in Magners League games against Newport and Ulster.

"If we play like we played on the last two weekends we will be beaten," he said. "Let's not beat about the bush. We have to have a belief in ourselves. We have got to attack. We have got to throw everything at Leinster and see what comes out of it."

Robinson also put a huge emphasis on winning the first match of the campaign. "It is away from the Magners League and, if you are to do anything in Europe, you have to win the first game. We have to get a foothold in this tournament," added Robinson.

Edinburgh are second from the bottom of the table in the Magners League with the same points as Connacht and with one more point than bottom-placed Ulster. They have won only once in five outings, compared to Leinster's two wins and a draw in five matches.

But Leinster travel to the Scottish capital having lost in their last four visits in all competitions, including twice in the Heineken Cup in the last two years. Mike Blair, the Scotland and Edinburgh scrumhalf, also sees the opening match as crucial to doing well in the pool.

After the Leinster game, the Scots must travel to France for a tough game against Castres, the team of former Irish and Lions secondrow Jeremy Davidson.

"Leinster haven't got a very good record coming up to Murrayfield. We've had a couple of good wins against them in the past," said Blair. "This first game against Leinster is a key fixture. If we win, it puts us in a great position when we go to Castres the following week. If we lose, it puts us in real trouble because it means we've got to win one, possibly two games away to qualify."

Despite the history, the home side will be considered underdogs once again when the Pool Two clash kicks off. Leinster's recent record in Murrayfield is bad enough, but Edinburgh's away record is bordering on embarrassing and winning a European Cup match away from home is something they haven't been able to do since 2004, which is the only time they got beyond the pool stages.

"Everyone's looking to win their home games and pick up something away from home. That's what everyone's looking to do. Leinster are always the real favourites when they come up to Murrayfield, but I certainly don't think they'll have any expectations of running away with the game. I think everyone's aware it's going to be very tight."

Like many players, whose form in the early part of the Magners League has been less than impressive, Blair's hopes are that the Heineken Cup will provide a welcome distraction. Like Leinster and, more particularly Ulster, so too will Edinburgh try to tweak some elements of their game in the hope of reversing narrow defeats.

"It's great to have a different focus," said Blair, who is also in the running to win this year's IRB World Player of the Year award. "Although we haven't been playing that well, we've been very close. In the last couple of games, if we'd won those instead of losing them by two or three points, we'd be sitting third or fourth in the Magners League. There are very fine lines between results. We'll be going into the game in good spirits and hope to put one over Leinster at Murrayfield again."