No-one knows better than the head coach how tough it will be for his men in Limerick: Bradley hails from Cork and coached neighbouring province Connacht for nine seasons.

The visitors' task will be made all the more difficult by the absence of their captain and principal points scorer, Greig Laidlaw, who has failed to recover from a shoulder injury.

History is also against them since only one team, Leicester Tigers six seasons ago, have ever recovered from losing their opening match at home to reach the quarter-finals, ironically enough gaining revenge for an opening-day defeat by Munster at Thomond Park in round six to get through. However, Bradley feels the position Edinburgh are in after last weekend's 45-0 home defeat to Saracens means they are more determined than most teams to upset the odds when they head to European rugby's most renowned fortress.

"We would have preferred to have won last week with a bonus point, to make it easier for ourselves but that didn't happen," Bradley said. "The position we find ourselves in, with our backs against the wall, means we have a good opportunity to go Thomond Park and get a win.

"A lot of sides go there with the intention of going for a bonus point and just about hanging in there. A lot of the French and English sides have done that in the past and that's just the wrong approach. You have to take Munster on."

Munster have lost only two of 54 home matches in the pool stages, but were beaten in their last outing at Thomond Park in this tournament when Ulster got the better of them in last season's quarter-finals

Bradley believes his team can draw inspiration from that. He said: "I think Ulster showed the way by putting it out to Munster, particularly in the first 20 minutes. They held on to the ball and were quite physical with them. That is the way we want to start the game.

"You have to go for it. History will show that the vast majority of sides that go to Thomond Park don't go for the win, they go for the point and you're just wasting your time doing that."

While he praised Munster for the way they are seeking to develop their playing style, Bradley also believes the fact they are in the early stages of doing so could be to the advantage of his team, who reached last season's semi-finals playing an all- action game. "Munster are now playing an exciting brand of rugby which will be good for them and good for their fans," Bradley said.

"It's a game that we would be quite familiar with at Edinburgh but then Munster have natural aggression and power up front so it's a good combination. However, they're probably less experienced in playing that sort of style than we are, so they're in their learning phase at the moment.

"All the information from them and their comments are in that vein and it's good that Munster have decided to move away from nine, 10-man position- orientated rugby because the game has moved on.

"Leinster have shown the way in recent times, and Clermont on their day can be stunning, so I think Munster have recognised that. It gives us an opportunity, though.

"It will be a different type of game from the normal matches Edinburgh and Munster play. If they are true to their 'new style' and we can play the way we can play then it should be a cracking, open and free-flowing game, so that gives us an opportunity.

"It changes the picture a little bit because when you normally go to Thomond Park you expect them to tuck the ball up the jersey and you won't see it for 80 minutes. Now, that doesn't seem to be the case."

Update With Greig Laidlaw failing to recover from the shoulder problem and Harry Leonard, who replaced him at half-time last week, also out Gregor Hunter comes in at stand-off while Greig Tonks has recovered from injury to return at full-back and in the pack Geoff Cross and Netani Talei are back in.

Team G Tonks; L Jones, N De Luca, B Atiga, T Visser; G Hunter, R Rees; J Yapp, R Ford, G Cross, G Gilchrist, S Cox (capt), D Denton, S McInally, N Talei. Replacements: A Titterrell, R Hislop, W P Nel, R McAlpine, D Basilaia, C Leck, M Scott, T Brown

Last week Edinburgh 0 Saracens 45

Prediction Impossible to see beyond a comfortable home win