EDINBURGH'S international fly-half Duncan Weir has promised he will be back from his broken jaw earlier than had been feared and is targeting being able to play in the club's back-to-back European Challenge Cup games against Stade Francais in December.
The player was injured in the game against Munster 11 days ago and it had been feared that he might be out until the New Year, but after seeing the swelling come down remarkably over the last week he is confident he can cut at least a month off that timetable.
"I saw the surgeon and he was happy with the progress so far, with just over a week gone," he said. "I am chafing at the bit to be back as soon as I can. I will definitely miss rounds one and two [of the European Challenge Cup] but there is a nice double header against Stade Francais to welcome me back – into this competition anyway."
He was speaking at the launch of this year's European competitions in Dublin, where Duncan Hodge, who has just taken over as Edinburgh's head coach, admitted that with all the turmoil in the club over the last week, he has hardly had time to think about the fresh challenge ahead.
For all that, both Hodge and Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow Warriors head coach, accept that with the European finals being staged in Scotland next May, there is an extra incentive to reach that showpiece event at BT Murrayfield.
"It makes the carrot even bigger," said Townsend. "We have not even made the quarter-finals before so qualifying for the knockout stages, at least, is a huge goal for us this year. It will be harder than ever to achieve that though.
"We have to win the close games we did not win last year in Europe. There was a close game against Northampton that did not go our way. We have to be consistently close to our best in our six [pool] games."
For Townsend, there is the added incentive of wanting to leave Glasgow on a high before he moves on to take over as Scotland head coach, though he says the pressure to make that European breakthrough before he goes is not a factor.
"You want to do your best job every day, have a positive training session, help pick the right team and help it win. It is a day-to-day, week-to-week job we are in. I can’t allow myself to think about a game in six months," he said.
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