ALAN Solomons believes that sport can play a part in helping life in France return to something akin to normality in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

The French tricolour was still flying at half-mast at Murrayfield yesterday as the Edinburgh Rugby coach and his squad set off for the south of France, where they will play against Agen this evening in a European Challenge Cup match. It will be one of the first sporting fixtures to be held in the country following the cancellation of last weekend’s games, and Solomons and his players are ready to help their hosts commemorate the events of a week ago in a fitting manner.

“Whatever Agen require on the day, whatever they think is appropriate, we will happily comply with that,” Solomons said yesterday. “That’s no problem at all.

“We understand that what has happened has been horrific. We are obviously deeply appreciative of the situation and will comply with whatever they need.

“We haven’t really had to talk to the players about it, because even the young boys are pretty up to speed with what is going on. I was reading some comments that Jamie Ritchie [the 19-year-old back-row forward] made, and you could tell that he was fully appreciative of the situation. I think that applies to everybody.”

Now 65, Solomons was a lawyer in his native South Africa before becoming a full-time coach in the late 1990s, and can remember the positive effect that the Rugby World Cup had on the country just a year after the first multi-racial elections. “I think sport plays a role,” he continued. “In many, many ways, I think sport can play a major role.

“We saw that with South Africa in 1995, at the World Cup, when Mr Mandela played a major, major role in bringing the country together through sport. It was at a point when the country had just embraced democracy for the first time. So I think sport can be a great unifying factor and I think, certainly, in circumstances like these sport can play a role.”

Some away European games involving French teams went ahead last weekend, and understandably those teams found it difficult to concentrate on rugby. A week on, however, Solomons thinks Agen will be ready and eager to return to action.

“Things are . . . . I wouldn’t say they’re settled, but it’s not quite as raw as in the immediate aftermath of the event. Obviously it’s still pretty raw, but I think that it can be used as a galvanising and unifying factor.

“Agen have a Top 14 home game straight after our game, and I would imagine they’re going to use this game to build towards that, so I’m expecting them to put out a fairly strong outfit and look to generate confidence. I think we’re in for a tough game. Every home game will be key for them in the Top 14.”

While French teams have tended to regard the Challenge Cup as secondary to the league, Solomons believes his own side are now in a decent position to mount a challenge in the cup as well as in the Pro 12. “I think we are in a much stronger position than we were last year. We still need to recruit to improve our strength in depth, but we are in a much stronger position.

“At the moment it’s not too bad. I’d say we need to be relatively injury free to be able to hold our strength in depth. In the backs we have key players, and Phil Burleigh is one of them, and he’s sorely missed.”

Burleigh sat out last week’s opening Challenge Cup win over Grenoble because of a thigh strain, and his continued unavailability means that Dougie Fife continues at full-back in a team which shows four changes in personnel and one positional switch from last week. Tongan international Otulea Katoa is given a first start on the left wing, with Tom Brown switching to the right wing and Damien Hoyland being rested. Scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne is also given the weekend off after playing in the last five matches, and his No 9 jersey goes to Sean Kennedy.

In the pack, Fraser McKenzie returns to the second row after a two-week suspension, and Nasi Manu comes in at blindside in place of Mike Coman, who has a neck injury. Ritchie is in line to make his first European appearance, having been named on the bench.

Agen (v Edinburgh at the Stade Armandie, Friday, 6.30pm GMT): F Tardieu; L Tagotago, P Fouyssac, J Heriteau, F Nakosi; F Bouvier, C Darbo; Q Bethune, M Barthomeuf, N Chocou, J-B Roidot, L Bastien, S Tau, A Miquel, M Baget. Substitutes: F Dufour, V Afatia, D Ryan, C Braendlin, F Vergnon, B Cadiou, T Guillimin, B Sicart

Edinburgh: D Fife; T Brown, W Helu, M Scott, O Katoa; G Tonks, S Kennedy; A Dickinson, R Ford, WP Nel, A Bresler, F McKenzie, N Manu, J Hardie, C du Preez. Substitutes: N Cochrane, R Sutherland, S Berghan, A Toolis, J Ritchie, N Fowles, B Kinghorn, C Dean.