NEW Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill admits he is taking a step into the unknown as he prepares to unleash his Gunners line-up for the first time.
The Myreside outfit open their Guinness PRO14 campaign away to Cardiff Blues tonight.
Cockerill has been pleased with the preparations he has been able to put in place since taking up his new post this summer. But he confessed until the action gets under way at the Arms Park, he will have no idea whether his team are up to speed.
The former England hooker said: “I’m optimistic. The boys have had a good pre-season, but I’m sure everyone is saying the same in that regard.
“We’ve had a couple of good weeks, we just need to make sure we go and we put our best game out on the field.
“Cardiff are a dangerous side, both from their drive in the forward pack and the fact they like to play an unstructured game.
“They’ve got players that can punish you if you’re inaccurate.
“We’ve prepared well, but we just don’t know what to expect until we get into the live scenario. We’re going there to win, that’s our mentality and so it should be. We’re looking forward to it.
“It’s my first experience of Cardiff Arms Park. There’s a synthetic field, which will make the game quick, and we’ve not won there for the last four years so it’s going to be a challenge for us.”
Cockerill’s first competitive selection sees Blair Kinghorn starts at full-back with Dougie Fife and Jason Harries – who makes his first competitive start for the club – named on the wings.
Chris Dean and Junior Rasolea kick-off in the centre, with Scotland internationals Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Duncan Weir combining as the half-back pairing.
Loosehead prop Darryl Marfo will make his competitive debut in the front-row alongside club centurions Stuart McInally and WP Nel, with Anton Bresler and Grant Gilchirst packing down in the second-row.
Newly-appointed captain Magnus Bradbury is joined in the back-row by Jamie Ritchie and John Hardie.
“The playing group are in a good place, but we need to make sure that we go there and do the job,” added Cockerill. “We’ve got to have a tough mind-set and physically we’ve got to be very good. It’s important that we get off to a good start and bring some points back.
“We’ve got internationals that are coming back in and available and we’ve got guys that have done 11 or 12 weeks of pre-season. We’ve picked a team which we feel is the right squad, because of the dynamics of bringing international guys back in - some will feature, some won’t.
“It’s a long season so in the here and now we’ve picked what I think is the best side to go to Cardiff and win.”
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