By Billy Hamilton
January 8 2003

One down, three to go - we have started 2003 in fine style with a convincing victory over Northampton. We now need to keep up the momentum in two "must win" games in the Heineken Cup

Edinburgh Rugby v London Irish
Murrayfield Stadium
Fri 10 Jan 2003 KO 7.30pm
Heineken Cup

Match Preview
by Billy Hamilton

One down, three to go - we have started 2003 in fine style with a convincing victory over Northampton. We now need to keep up the momentum in two "must win" games in the Heineken Cup.

My previous article set out in greater detail our chances of advancement in the Heineken Cup. These can very quickly be summarised as "we must win both games and score a lot of tries". We have, fortunately, got back into a winning streak and the tries have started to come so let's hope that we can keep this improvement up over the next two weekends.

We go into Friday's game on a high following our run of victories. Edinburgh also had a fine win last weekend by 46-13 over their fellow Scottish side Borders. They will not be a pushover but we have the comfort of having defeated them by 24-8 in our previous meeting at Reading in October.

This game marks the second "Craic on Tour" excursion of the season. Greystones was considered to be a pre-season training session. We hope that the success of Toulouse will have encouraged a lot more people to join "the usual suspects" on these trips. Given the small attendances at Edinburgh games we will be able to make our presence felt at Meadowbank (or in case of frost - Murrayfield).

HEINEKEN CUP - Pool 5 -- Correct at 7/01/2003
TEAM	P	W	D	L	T	F	A	Pts
Toulouse	4	4	0	0	17	142	68	8
London Irish	4	2	0	2	8	107	57	4
Edinburgh	4	1	0	3	5	61	121	2
Newport	4	1	0	3	4	57	115	2

Previous fixtures

Edinburgh
20/12/02 v Borders (Postponed - frost)
26/12/02 v Glasgow (10-10 draw)
03/01/03 v Borders (46-13 win)
10/01/03 v LONDON IRISH

London Irish
22/12/02 v Newcastle Falcons (17-16 win)
29/12/02 v Newcastle Falcons (20-0 win)
04/01/03 v Northampton Saints (22-10 win)
10/01/03 v EDINBURGH

Leading Scorers

POINTS
81 Ludovic Mercier (Gloucester)
67 Stephen Jones (Llanelli)
66 Barry Everitt (London Irish)
60 Ronan O'Gara (Munster)
57 Brian O'Meara (Leinster Lions)
56 Felipe Contepomi (Bristol Shoguns)
53 Paul Grayson (Northampton Saints)
45 Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique)
43 Alexandre Peclier (Bourgoin)
41 Gonzalo Quesada (Beziers), Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers)
40 Brendan Laney (Edinburgh Rugby)

PENALTIES
17 Stephen Jones (Llanelli)
15 Brian O'Meara (Leinster Lions)
14 Barry Everitt (London Irish)
11 Felipe Contepomi (Bristol Shoguns), Jason Strange (Newport), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique), Paul Grayson (Northampton Saints)
10 Ludovic Mercier (Gloucester)
9 Gonzalo Quesada (Beziers), Iestyn Harris (Cardiff), David Humphreys (Ulster)

DROP GOALS
3 Barry Everitt (London Irish)
1 Pierre Mignoni, Gonzalo Quesada (Beziers), Rod Kafer (Leicester Tigers), Alexandre Peclier (Bourgoin), Christian Warner (Leinster Lions), Sebastien Viars, Xavier Sadourny (Montferrand), Gavin Henson (Swansea), Yann Delaigue (Toulouse), Julien Peyrelongue (Biarritz Olympique), David Humphreys (Ulster)

TEAM TRIES
22 Munster
21 Leicester Tigers, Gloucester
17 Toulouse
15 Neath
14 Perpignan
13 Bourgoin
12 Llanelli
11 Northampton Saints
10 Viadana, Bristol Shoguns, Montferrand, Leinster Lions
8 Glasgow Rugby, Sale Sharks, London Irish
7 Biarritz Olympique
6 Amatori & Calvisano, Swansea
5 Beziers, Edinburgh Rugby
4 Newport, Ulster
1 Cardiff