Rob Moffat denies resting players ahead of Edinburgh’s European campaign

From The Times
October 2, 2009
Lewis Stuart

After losing their unbeaten record last weekend, Edinburgh have come over all radical for their trip to play the Ospreys on Sunday in their final Magners League game before the Heineken Cup starts with an equally tough trip to Paris six days later.

Yesterday, however, Rob Moffat, the head coach, was at pains to deny that selection for this match and the trip to France are connected. “It is a consistent policy to manage the squad, that is really important,” he said. “If you look at the most successful sides in any league, that is what they do, maximise their whole squad and that is what we are trying to do.”

The fact is that after making five changes to the team that came within a few inches of defeating Leinster in their last outing — when the penalty from Chris Paterson that would have won the game shaved the outside of the right-hand post — Moffat then went on to pinpoint most of the rested players as being among the top performers in the winning start to the season.

The exception was Ross Ford, the Lions hooker, who has only played two matches after being rested for the early part of the season, but still loses his place to Andy Kelly, who produced some storming rugby while his rival was still on the sidelines. “He deserves his chance,” Moffat said.

The big surprise is that Edinburgh have left out Paterson, the club’s record-breaking points scorer. “He has started the last four games,” Moffat said. “At 31, he is more and more of a professional all the time — but he is 31. When I came here three years ago I told him that he would not start every game but that is exactly what he did in that first season. I don’t think he could do that nowadays, hardly anybody can.”

While Moffat made nothing of it, the fact that Paterson picked up a heavy knock during last week’s match would have cemented the coach’s decision and he is rested completely, giving Steven Jones a start and meaning that David Blair comes into the squad as cover for fly half, where Phil Godman will take on the frontline goalkicking duties.

Elsewhere, the changes are less of an issue in terms of the players coming in, though the half backs and locks are the only units to come through the exercise unscathed. Ben Cairns, the centre, is another rested after scoring his second try of the season last week, but the centre partnership of John Houston and Nick De Luca that takes over had had plenty of time together in the past and De Luca won his early caps at outside centre, where he will be playing in this game.

In the forwards, apart from Kelly, Scott Newlands comes in for Roddy Grant, ending the experiment of playing two specialist openside flankers and giving the unit a much more conventional look. In the front row, Allan Jacobsen, the 37-cap Scotland prop who is fighting his way back to full fitness after shoulder surgery, replaces Kyle Traynor.

Changing a third of a team that has been winning regularly for the match before they start European competition certainly looks like a coach resting and protecting his key players, but Moffat was adamant that appearances are wrong.

“We want to do well in both competitions, we want to do well every week,” he said. “We are now going to the Ospreys and there would be nothing better than going on to Stade Français after winning there so that we can look at last week as a blip.

“There is nothing better than winning. We have won there in the last two years and go down with a real belief. We are certain the Ospreys are not going to take it lightly. I’m looking forward to it.”

Edinburgh: S Jones; M Robertson, N De Luca, J Houston, T Visser; P Godman, M Blair (capt); A Jacobsen, A Kelly, G Cross, C Hamilton, S MacLeod, S Newlands, A MacDonald, A Hogg. Replacements: R Ford, Ryan Grant, S Turnbull, Roddy Grant, G Laidlaw, D Blair, B Cairns.