A maximum points haul from their first three matches has entitled Edinburgh to change their European Challenge Cup priorities with head coach Richard Cockerill now targeting home advantage in the quarter-finals.

Merely getting through to the knockout stages of European competitions has proven tough enough for Scottish teams in the past, but the way in which they have dominated Pool 4 to date has fully justified such thinking.

Anything short of another bonus point win against Krasny Yar, the Siberian club that Edinburgh thrashed in Russia a couple of months ago, would be a major surprise and while they still have back to back meetings with trophy holders Stade Francais to come, the eight point advantage they currently boast and 23 tries they have registered, means they are now strong favourites to be among the leading qualifiers, if not top seeds in the last eight.

“You would think a bonus point win would get you there into the quarter-finals (but) I am not sure it would get us a home quarter final,” said Cockerill. “We would like to get maximum points to be on 20 points then we have two games to earn the right to be at home.”

A veteran of European campaigns as both player and coach at two-time Heineken Cup champions Leicester, he understands just how important that can be, adding: “It would make a huge difference. We are trying to build something here, to encourage the crowds to come. I would like to get us a home quarter final, I would like to play it at Myreside and I would like for us to sell it out and start to build that fan base at Myreside.”

With two derby matches against Glasgow Warriors looming over the festive period, however, he has recalled captain Fraser Kennedy but once again taken the calculated risk of leaving out senior players while also taking the chance for another bit of experimentation in giving a chance at full-back to Darcy Graham, who made a good impression on the wing last week, with a brilliantly taken try.

“I want to create competition and guys who stand up and play well will get the opportunity to play again and I think I have done that,” Cockerill observed. “We are not in the main (European) competition so these two weeks are maybe easier than playing in the league for us. Those who have stepped up get the opportunity again. That creates competition and hopefully nobody is too comfortable in the starting shirt.”

Cockerill knows, too, that there is a thin line between confidence and complacency ahead of this meeting with the Russians on the basis of Edinburgh’s own experience this season and that of others, Krasny Yar having shocked Stade Francais when they met in the pool opener.

“We are expected to win and if we play anywhere near our potential we should, but I said that before we played Treviso at home (and lost) so it will be an interesting development for us to see if we can turn up and do a really workman like performance, play like we want to play and get the job done as quickly as possible,” Cockerill observed.

He noted, too, that as much as they caught Stade Francais unaware in the opening match, the Russians managed to make life difficult for their French opponents when going down just 39-24 in the return fixture in Paris last week and with that in mind he wants to ensure that they do not get the opportunity to settle to their task at Murrayfield tonight, the match having been shifted because of conditions that are unlikely to cause the men from Siberia any discomfort.

“We need to make sure that we start the game very strongly, but then continue that,” he said. “We can’t be sloppy with the physical parts of the game, our set piece and our defence in particular and make sure we control the ball. We’ve scored lots of tries in the last few weeks, we’re playing a good brand of rugby, but we need now to make sure we can do that against sides that will be slightly more unconventional than some of the others we play.”

Teams:

Edinburgh: D Graham; D Hoyland, J Johnstone, C Dean, D van der Merwe; J Van der Walt, S Kennedy; R Sutherland, N Cochrane, M McCallum, F McKenzie (captain), L Carmichael, M Bradbury, J Ritchie, C du Preez. Replacements: C Fenton, K Bryce, M Shields, V Mata, L Crosbie, N Fowles, B Kinghorn, J Rasoela.

Krasny Yar: V Artemyev (captain); S Latu, G Pruidze, K Golosnitskii, E Kolomiitcev; L Malaguradze, V Dorofeev; S Fukofuka, A Kondakov, A Bitiev, A Mahu, A Garbuzov, V Gresev, V Arhip, O Prepelitse. Replacements: V Tsnobiladze, G Tsnobiladze, M Tsiklauri, A Khudiakov, E Zykov, A Riabov, I Galinovskiy, F Apikotoa.