Aironi play Edinburgh
Edinburgh travel to Aironi for the fifth round of games in the Magners this Saturday.
Edinburgh will be missing some of their big names and have made five changes to their team. Jim Thompson will replace the influential Chris Patterson at full-back.
Greig Laidlaw and Kyle Traynor replace Mike Blair and Allan Jacobsen who drop to the bench. Scott Newlands is away at the Commonwealth Games for the Scotland Sevens' rugby team and is replaced by Frasier McKenzie at blindside. Alan McDonald returns from
a hip injury at the expense of Ross Rennie.
Aironi will miss Ludovic Mercier at number 10 and Riccardo Bocchino will play against Edinburgh. Aironi will rely on their pack to starve Edinburgh of possession and the likes of Salvatore Perugini will be important for the Italian side in the front-row
battle.
Marco Bortalami will hope that he can match Edinburgh in the line-out and Josh Sole will be a physical presence in Aironi’s back row.
Aironi lost 38-6 in their last match against the Ospreys with Bocchino grabbing the Italian side’s only points after he converted two penalties.
Aironi’s debut in the Magners League started with a credible loss away to Munster. The Italian outfit scored a try and Ludovic Mercier kicked all their penalties in the 33-17 defeat.
However, they were then beaten at home by Ulster 15-22 and were well beaten 49-10 in an away game to the Scarlets with Nick Williams scoring the Italian sides only try.
The French out-half Bocchino will need to have an outstanding game and kick all his penalties if Aironi are to upset the odds. Both sides will seek to gain an advantage in the early stages and a tough physical encounter will be expected.
Edinburgh won just one of their opening four games. However, the fixture list has been unkind to coach Rob Moffat who had a difficult match away to Ulster which they lost 29-21.
They lost their home match to Munster in another closely contested game and had it not been for the boot of Ronan O’Gara they would have managed a draw.
In their first match they had a tricky away fixture to the Cardiff Blues. Edinburgh were beaten by 34-23 that day.
However, Edinburgh did manage their first win against Leinster last weekend, beating the Irish province 32-24.
"It's important we build on what we did well against Leinster on Friday, especially that spell in the second-half where we scored three tries," said Moffat.
"This weekend is about improvement. We realise Aironi are searching for their first win but they will be tough opposition, particularly up front.
"We simply cannot afford to drop back into some of the individual errors we made in the first three league games."
Edinburgh will also be looking for a win after their impressive display against Leinster while Aironi will be searching for their first win. With key players such as Patterson and Blair missing from the Scottish side, Aironi will hope that they can take
advantage of a weaker Edinburgh team in the Stadio Zaffanella.
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