After so many years of meaningless matches in the second half of seasons it is far from business as usual at Edinburgh this season, but journeyman lock Fraser McKenzie remains determined to maintain a workmanlike approach to the tasks in hand.

Now approaching the veteran stage of his career, the former club captain revelling in the mood at Murrayfield as the pressure mounts on those left behind while their Scotland stars are away on international duty.

“We approach it like any other period,” he said, however.“We are very detailed in what we do and we respect teams and do our due diligence, but the results have gone against us in key games so far this season and we need some results in the next three weeks. In years gone by in the last decade by this stage of the season it is almost dead rubber time for Edinburgh, but last year and this we know we are right in the mix. With the Scotland guys away there is a big reliance on those of us left to go out there and get results and that does create a buzz about the place. It is almost like Cup finals if you look at it, we need points from all three if we want to be in those play-offs, but there is no extra pressure on us because we know we are good enough to be a play-off side and we know we have a good squad. We are looking forward to the games rather than being nervous.”

Inevitably these international windows provide opportunities for youngsters to make names for themselves and the uncapped McKenzie is glad to have a couple of men who have experienced both sides of things in Ross Ford, Scotland’s most captain player and his fellow former Scotland captain Henry Pyrgos, alongside him to help drive standards, particularly in the wake of their shock defeat at the Southern Kings last month.

“That is one of my main role along with other experienced guys like Henry and Fordy who has all those caps. It falls on us to make good decisions and carry the team through. There is a lot of talent in the squad, but sometimes direction is key and we need to play in the right areas,” he said.“In South Africa we made individual errors that cost us and ultimately our decisions hampered us out there. It was unprofessional that we managed to lose that one.”

They also struggled around the autumn international window, but McKenzie believes they are better equipped for their upcoming matches, beginning with Friday’s visit of the Dragons.

“We really had excess of injuries in that (autumn) period, now we are starting to see guys coming back into training, you look at competition for places and you think two, three, four weeks down the line we are going to have a hell of a competition for places ahead of the European quarter-final,” McKenzie observed.“Everyone wants to play in that one, but we are respectful of the Dragons and we are focused on this one and want to get the win.”