Edinburgh's bid to construct a RaboDirect Pro12 fortress at Murrayfield has been reinforced by the most formidable combined firepower in tournament history.

Tim Visser returns to the capital side tonight, while Nikki Walker makes his debut against Newport Gwent Dragons.

The Scotland wingers sit second and fourth on the league's all-time try-scoring list: Visser on 48, three behind Ulster's Tommy Bowe, while Walker has 36, three behind third placed Shane Horgan, the now retired Leinsterman. The pair believe their combined presence will help one another.

"It is brilliant to have another genuine finisher at the club," said Visser, who has finished top of the try-scoring charts in each of his four seasons with Edinburgh.

"It happened a bit like that for me during the Six Nations with Sean Maitland distracting the opposition on his side, allowing me to come out of the shadows on my side a bit more rather than playing on my own."

Walker expressed similar sentiments. "Edinburgh have always tried to play great rugby and that is why Tim has shone and been top try scorer for the last three or four years," said the former Border Reivers and Ospreys winger.

"That is what I want to come up here and do. I see them using Tim constantly but there will be a time when they stop Tim because they know he is getting the ball. Having me on the other side, I can free him up and he can free me up. Hopefully that will work."

What Walker also brings, however, is a knowledge of what is required to win this competition, having done so with the Ospreys under both formats, when it was just a league campaign and in the first season after the title was decided through a play-off format.

However, head coach Alan Solomons' message yesterday was in keeping with his overall theme since taking the post, that of asking supporters and commentators to give his side time to develop. He suggested yesterday that too much should not be immediately expected of the wingers since both are making their first appearances of any sort this season.

Visser expressed mock bewilderment at having been troubled by plantar fasciitis, a condition associated with endurance athletes rather than sprinters such as himself.

"I have been told it is a marathon runner's nightmare and it comes up through wear and tear," he said. "I have no idea how I got it. There is an operation for it but it would have put me out for 12 weeks. I was not keen on that so decided so just let it rest and it is now at a manageable level and I want to have a crack at coming back now."

By contrast, Walker, having spent more than half of last season labouring with a shoulder problem, finally decided to go under the surgeon's knife.

"My final game was the Scotland A game in Newcastle because after the Six Nations I knew I was coming here and [previous club] Worcester did not want anything to do with me [after he told them he was moving]. I just wanted my shoulder done, so it suited both parties," he said.

"I did my shoulder a year ago and played with my shoulder out for a while, strapped up and hanging on to be honest. It came to the point when I knew I could not go on much longer and needed it done to avoid more damage but it is all good now."

Walker acknowledged that there was some parallel to be drawn between his last season in Scotland with the Reivers in eight years ago and now, in that this Edinburgh team has also been battling to get any sort of wins.

The difference is that while that was a franchise in terminal decline, trying to stretch its resources too thinly, he believes he is now with a club that, under new management, is full of potential.

"Last week's result and performance [losing in Munster] was disappointing and we will have to scrap for everything as we are in a transitional period. As Alan said, we are underdone on rugby as the coaches came in late," he observed.

"However, as soon as we get a couple of wins under our belt and a bit of confidence there is enough talent to be climbing that table. Across the pitch there are international players all over the place."

As to whether they have the capacity to challenge for honours, he also echoed his head coach's words in calling for patience.

"We want to get as high up the table as we can but I have won that league before and it is a big ask for us to go out and win it in the first season with a new coach coming in and new structures," he admitted.

"We are massively underdone in rugby just now and we have had new stuff chucked at us. You could see that last week and over the next couple of months we need to get used to the systems and by Christmas we will be winning games. To say we are going to win the league is a bit much."