Former Scotland under-20 cap Tommy Allan has been recalled to the Benetton Treviso side for tonight’s visit to BT Murrayfield.
The stand-off, who took advantage of dual-qualification to switch to Italy five years ago, played a crucial role as his club got off to their best ever Pro12 or Pro14 start when they beat the Dragons and the Cardiff Blues in their opening two matches.
He was also at the helm as they threatened to make it even better when working their way into a 26-17 lead at the Scarlets, only for the 2016 champions to overrun them in the third quarter and he returns to the side after missing last week's defeat at the Ospreys.
However, ahead of a meeting with the one team in the competition that can claim to have had a tougher schedule than his men to this point, Treviso facing their fourth away match out of their first five fixtures of the season, Edinburgh's head coach Richard Cockerill reckons that the main task will be to cope with the power they carry.
“They have a good set piece and they maul and they drive very well,” he said.
“They’re very direct... they carry the ball very strongly up the tight channel with their 12 and they’ve got a back row that carries the ball very well.
"If you turn the ball over and you don’t control the ball, they have some threat. Tommaso Allan has played very well, both their wingers have played very well - [Monty] Ioane is not in there, who’s been a real threat for them, so that takes a little bit of their danger away to a point, but they’re very good all round, really."
While Italy's clubs have struggled to make an impact since joining the Pro12, Treviso's record against Edinburgh is a decent one with six wins in 16 encounters and, like their national team, they appear to target trips to the Scottish capital as being among their best chances of claiming major wins away from home.
That was reflected in last season's visit to Myreside when Cockerill suffered his first defeat as Edinburgh coach and he sees this as a crucial match in terms of the bid to reach the Pro14 play-offs for a second successive year, noting that: “They improved a huge amount last year and they’ve started this season very well. It’s an important game because they’re one of the sides we’ll be competing against to be in that top three or top four.”
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Fife, C Dean, M Scott, D van der Merwe; S Hickey, H Pyrgos; A Dell, S McInally, WP Nel, B Toolis, G Gilchrist, M Bradbury, H Watson, B Mata. Replacements: R Ford, R Sutherland, M McCallum, F McKenzie, J Ritchie, N Fowles, J van der Walt, J-P Socino
Benetton Treviso: J Hayward; R Tavuyara, T Iannone, L Morisi, L Sperandio; T Allan, D Duvenage; C Traore, L Bigi, M Riccioni, M Fuser, D Budd, S Negri, M Barbini, R Barbieri. Replacements: E Makelara, D Appiah, S Ferrari, F Ruzza, M Lazzaroni, E Gori, I McKinley, I Brex
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