Edinburgh Rugby in Europe: Potential knockout foe, why progress is vital and how switch to BT Murrayfield is tempting

It’s more than a month since Edinburgh Rugby played a home game but they will return to the DAM Health Stadium on Friday to take on Pau in the first of what could be a run of half a dozen fixtures at their own ground.

A place in the last 16 of the European Challenge Cup has already been secured but if Edinburgh can beat their French visitors they will be rewarded with a home tie.

Bath would be their likely opponents and another win would keep the capital club at home for the quarter-finals too.

Stevie Lawrie, Edinburgh’s forwards coach, was reluctant to look beyond Friday but knows how important it is for the club to be involved in the latter stages. They have struggled in recent years to win knockout ties and have had to cast an envious eye westwards at Glasgow Warriors.

Edinburgh are well placed this season to make progress in both the Challenge Cup and the United Rugby Championship and, given they are unbeaten in competitive games at the DAM Health Stadium, the importance of securing home ties cannot be overstated.

“We want to be bringing play-off rugby to the DAM, that’s really important,” said Lawrie.

“We’ve done it in fits and starts. Previous to last year, we had a home quarter-final against Munster [in 2019]. I was at that game as a spectator, it was fantastic. You think about Toulouse in that Heineken Cup run when we eventually went to the semi-final [in 2012]. If that can become more regular …

“That’s what Glasgow did. They were consistently in semis, then in finals and then won the final [of the Guinness Pro12 in 2015]. You have to be competing at that level consistently to have a realistic expectation of getting over the line.”

Success brings its own issues of course, and were Edinburgh to progress to the