Pointing the way back home

Celtic League:Travel may broaden the mind, but for Connacht a return to the Sportsground tomorrow night for their Magners Celtic League clash with Edinburgh after three matches on the road will bring comfort and, hopefully, something more tangible in the form of points.

Captain Andrew Farley returns to the squad - he's likely to start on the bench - following injury, as does Adrian Flavin, adding a little steel to the pack. The bare statistics may suggest the Irish province have struggled this season, but there is mitigation in the detail.

Having won their opening match, they ran into the in-form team of the tournament, Llanelli, lost by a point to Glasgow, who kicked a penalty in injury-time, and then made too many mistakes in the final quarter against Cardiff.

Results haven't quite aped the quality of performance.

Farley explained: "Normally the pre-season is a pretty exhausting two-month process, but this year we had the pot of gold in terms of playing South Africa at the Sportsground. It was a brilliant occasion. It gave us a bounce going into the season and we won the first game.

"We are playing well as a team, producing a good style of play that mixes up the tight and running games required to be successful. Brads (Michael Bradley), Ernie (Eric Elwood) and Dan McFarland have all worked very hard and it's not up to the players.

"The return of experienced players like Johnny O'Connor and Gavin Duffy, and Robbie Morris' arrival, has made things a great deal easier for me and I'm looking forward to being involved again."

The 27-year-old Australian-born, Irish naturalised secondrow earned recognition for his consistent quality in playing for Ireland A during last summer's Churchill Cup.

He has a number of personal goals this season and would like to repeat his presence at national representative level. He is aware, though, that first he must get back into the Connacht team - his main priority - and lead by deed as well as word.

Bradley knows he will face an Edinburgh side peppered with returning Scottish World Cup players. "We understand that Edinburgh will have all their internationals back. We've looked at the Cardiff game and Glasgow game before that and we realise again that, if we take care of our own business, irrespective of who we play we can win the matches."

Their opponents Edinburgh give a debut to David Blair, the 22-year-old forming a halfback partnership with his elder brother, Scottish international scrumhalf, Mike. David Blair moved to his hometown club from Sale Sharks in July and has been given a start by head coach Andy Robinson.

Many years ago the Blairs would play together in the family's back garden. "That was probably the last time we played together," said Mike Blair. "There are four boys in my family and we always liked to have a kick-around. It is really exciting because I've not played with David before. So it should be good fun and a good experience.

"I'm not sure whether our Mum and Dad will be able to go over and watch the game, but I'm certainly looking forward to it."

Allister Hogg returns to captain the side at blindside flanker, while Edinburgh field an all-Scotland international front row with new signing Ross Ford joining props Gavin Kerr and Craig Smith at the coalface.

EDINBURGH: H Southwell; A Turnbull, B Cairns, N De Luca, S Webster; D Blair, M Blair; G Kerr, R Ford, C Smith; C Hamilton, B Gissing, A Hogg (capt), R Rennie, S Cross. Replacements: A Kelly, A Allori, M Mustchin, R Reid, B Meyer, A Warnock, J Houston.

CONNACHT SQUAD: M Deane, T Donnelly, G Duffy, P Durcan, A Farley, A Flavin, J Fogarty, D Gannon, K Matthews, M McCarthy, B McGovern, C McPhillips, R Morris, J Muldoon, J O'Connor, R Ofisa, C O'Loughlin, M Swift, O Treviranus, B Wilkinson, A Wynne, D Yapp.