IF weakening a team who have already lost to one of the worst performing sides in the tournament looks like the move of a desperate man the reason is because that is exactly what it is.

Richard Cockerill has had to juggle international demands affecting a good two thirds of his top side, a crippling injury list, the challenges of top-flight European rugby in the next two weeks and a ludicrous fixture schedule that saw his players arrive home from South Wales in the early hours of Monday morning and fly to Ireland, where they face Munster, about 80 hours later.

No wonder he was sounding as though things were conspiring against him – particularly when word filtered through from Ireland that with their opponent's biggest names being rested last week, Munster are able to welcome the likes of Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray back for the game.

In different circumstances, nine changes from a side who lost at the Dragons, handing the Welsh side only their third win of the season, might have been a positive move. Not in this case.

Cockerill has had to dig deep just to field a 23, with George Taylor, the Melrose centre who signed an academy contract in the summer, making his debut and two more potential debutants on the bench.

The real problem, comes in the pack. While the front row is strong, nobody else is in double figures when it comes to Edinburgh games, though Luke Hamilton, who captains the side, has been capped and played 43 games for Leicester before moving north.

"We’ve got to look at the bigger picture of our season. You can’t keep asking the same players to front up every week, especially those Test players," Cockerill said. "Obviously it’s very unhelpful that we’ve got significant injuries to very good players in the pack, especially in that back five. [Grant] Gilchrist and [Ben] Toolis are our two front-line locks: they can’t just keep playing every week for the next 30 weeks. We’ve got to manage them.

“We go into Europe next week, the week after and then Glasgow [twice]. I’m just managing the squad as best as I see fit. We’ve got to step up, clearly.

"It’s nowhere near what is perceived as our strongest side, but managing the squad with the injuries we have and with the budgets we deal with - that’s where we are at this point. I’m not sure what else I can do, because if I don’t pick Ally Miller or Lewis Wynne [as flankers], who do I pick? I’ve no choice.

"If I don’t pick [Callum] Hunter-Hill or [Jamie] Hodgson [in the second row], who do I pick? I haven’t got anybody else. That’s where we’re at.”

Despite that, Cockerill says he is happy with the support he is getting from the SRU, who own Edinburgh, with the club partly a victim of their own success by qualifying for the Heineken Champions Cup and also sending 10 players off to play international rugby.

"Mark [Dodson, the chief executive] and Scott [Johnson, the director of rugby] are fully supportive. We are working very hard together," he said. "This is the first time this has happened and discussions will continue as ever. We are all trying to do the same thing.

"Glasgow are strong, Edinburgh are strong, the national team are doing exceptionally well. That doesn’t happen without a lot of hard work.

"As everyone sees, Edinburgh is the last piece of that jigsaw. We have to keep working and I am going to keep driving that as hard as I can because that is what I am paid to do. That won’t change. It was like that from day one. I have to keep championing the cause for us to improve across the board, simple as that."

For all that, he is confident the team have every motivation to do well, even if they are up against a much more experienced set of players.

"We are going there to win, we are going there to put our best foot forward, have a big performance and see where we get to," Cockerill said. "There are no predictions, we are trying to win and get as many points out of the game as we can. How realistic that is, we will see. I am not trying to kid anyone here. It is going to be a huge test for us. We are not pretending we are favourites going there but we are going to work as hard as we can.

"We’ve got a massive four weeks, haven’t we? Then [Southern] Kings, which is also massive for us, so a massive five weeks then we’re back into Europe again. With the injuries we have and what the international guys have been through, I’m simply managing the squad as best I can.”

Munster: M Haley; A Conway, C Farrell, R Scannell, K Earls; JJ Hanrahan, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan, T Beirne, B Holland, P O’Mahony (C), C Cloete, A Botha. Replacements: K O’Byrne, J Loughman, C Parker, F Wycherley, G Coombes, D Williams, T Bleyendaal, S Arnold.

Edinburgh: D Fife; T Brown, G Taylor, J Pablo Socino, D van der Merwe; J van der Walt, N Fowles; R Sutherland, D Cherry, M McCallum, J Hodgson, C Hunter-Hill, A Miller, L Wynne, L Hamilton (C). Replacements: R Ford, D Marfo, P Ceccarelli, C Atkinson, S Nayalo, S Kennedy, J Baggott, C Dean.

Referee: N Owens (Wales)