'If you're in the race, you've got a chance' - Edinburgh coach channelling 300-1 winner for Leinster tie

That's the opinion of Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt who referenced the horse ahead of his side's Champions Cup clash with Leinster this weekend in Dublin. Across the city from the famous old venue of Croke Park, the Scottish side will be hoping to pull off an upset of their own when they cross the Irish heavyweights.

While they aren’t nearly as long a shot as Stuart Coltherd’s seven-year-old mare was, Edinburgh are still expected by most to exit the competition following their Round of 16 tie. Everitt, however, is backing his players to go to the Aviva Stadium with courage and belief in their ability to pull off a famous win.

‘We deserve the underdog tag after our performances’

He said: “It's a great challenge for us and we're certainly ready to take that on. We're definitely not going there to lose.

“We've got everything to gain by going there. A team that's not expected to win. We deserve the underdog tag after our performances, but like I said, we're ready to rise to the challenge.

“The upside of it is that we managed the game really well against the Stormers in a kick-heavy team and we're expecting obviously Leinster to have variation in their game, which will be a little bit different, but we know what's coming from them and certainly we know what we're up against.

“You've got to look at it positively. There was racing at Kelso and there was a horse, Crokes Cross, who had a 300-1 chance of winning the race and she won.

“I know that our odds aren't that bad but if you're in the race, you've got a chance to win and obviously if we're on the pitch in the knockouts, we've got an opportunity as well. We'll go there and we'll give it everything that we have.

“We do speak about being the underdogs this week and what we need to do to be able to get a result there. If you're going to a game thinking that you're going to lose, you're not going to win.”

Everitt was able to name a strong 23-man team for the match, as have opponents Leinster, despite having 11 first team players out injured. Amongst those unavailable are captain Magnus Bradbury, who Everitt confirmed will remain unavailable for four to six weeks, and winger Duhan van der Merwe.

In terms of the players who will be in action, hooker Ewan Ashman will make his 50th appearance for Edinburgh. Everitt highlighted the importance of the Scotland forward and what he means to the team.

He said: “Over the last couple of weeks, we have added him to our leadership group. He's come on in leaps and bounds. There's not many hookers in the world that are better than him when he's on his game.

“I know he didn't get any international caps for the British and Irish Lions, but he was a late call up for them. He's been outstanding for Edinburgh and accumulated 50 caps in a very short time.

“It shows the value that he adds to our group that whenever he's available, we include him in our group. Not only is he a good rugby player, he's a good person as well.”

Edinburgh must be better in opposition 22

The focus for the Edinburgh coach ahead of the match has been on identifying where his team must improve in order to give themselves a shot at victory. Not only that, but trying to identify potential areas of weakness in the Leinster team.

“We've got to get better in the opposition 22,” said Everitt. “I don't think we've made the most of those opportunities that we've had. We looked at that and our finish completion, when I talk about finish completion, when the opposition 22 percentage is really low.

“We need to be more accurate in that area, obviously put a lot of emphasis on it. Leinster are good at keeping teams out as well. But at the same time, when we get eight opportunities in, we've got to look at completing 50 per cent of those and that puts you in the game.

“Managing the game and being disciplined in our performance on attack is really important. It's an area that's let us down and we need to make an improvement there on the weekend against a team that really goes hard at the ball with Doris and Van der Flier.”

Edinburgh starting XV: 15 Piers O’Conor, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Matt Currie, 12 James Lang, 10 Ross Thomson, 9 Charlie Shiel. 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Ewan Ashman, 3 D’arcy Rae, 4 Marshall Sykes, 5 Grant Gilchrist (C), 6 Liam McConnell, 7 Dylan Richardson, 8 Ben Muncaster. Replacements: 16 Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Glen Young, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Ben Vellacott, 22 Mosese Tuipulotu, 23 Jack Brown.

Leinster starting XV: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Tommy O’Brien, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jamie Osborne, 11 Jimmy O’Brien, 10 Harry Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park. 1 Andrew Porter, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 Ryan Baird, 6Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Caelan Doris (C). Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Alex Usanov, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Brian Deeny, 20 Max Deegan, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Ciarán Frawley, 23 Robbie Henshaw.

Referee: Luke Pearce (England).

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