Try hero Lee Jones said the Edinburgh dressing room reaction to hearing four-time European champions Toulouse are their Heineken Cup quarter-final opponents was a cumulative ”Bring it on!”
Jones sped in for the fourth and decisive score in the 36-11 defeat of London Irish with three minutes left on Sunday which not only confirmed Edinburgh had qualified for the last eight for the first time since 2004 but also secured a precious home quarter-final against Europe’s mightiest club.
With history showing home advantage is often decisive in the Heineken Cup quarters, Jones now wants a big Murrayfield crowd to roar on the capital club on the first weekend in April.
”The feeling when we heard the draw on getting inside was ‘bring it on’,” he said. ”To get the home quarter was the big thing, it doesn’t really matter who it is.
”The crowd was fantastic against Irish, it was a great feeling to run out and see the East Stand packed both top and bottom. Having the people close to the sidelines this year for games has been a big thing for us and the noise they were making when we had that last scrum just before my try was a huge help in helping us to the next level. We hope there will be even more to roar us on against Toulouse in April.”
Jones, who left Murrayfield for St Andrews and his first involvement with the Scotland Six Nations training squad, admitted he hadn’t had time to think about all that had been happening to him in recent weeks.
”You just move on to the next thing at the moment, but it was a big thrill to get the try that made the difference,” he continued. ”We had a two-on-one just a bit before that Irish defended really well and I thought the chance might be gone, but I was delighted to get another chance and we’d heard from the sidelines that we’d probably need a fourth try so were pushing for it.”
Jones said that the squad had agreed at the start of the season that a quarter-final place in the Heineken was a big goal, and there was great satisfaction to have achieved it.
”It’s been refreshing this season, we maybe changed focus a little from before and a lot of younger guys coming into the squad has made a tremendous difference,” he added.
Head coach Michael Bradley was proud of his squad particularly for shrugging off the late withdrawals of key men Chris Paterson, David Denton and Nick De Luca.
”It shows the benefit of moving players around and giving them different challenges,” he said. ”John Houston came in at two days notice, Stuart McInally and Jim Thompson literally half an hour before the match but they all made a huge contribution.
”We have the Six Nations now and the internationalists will be away, but it also means four matches for us where more of these guys can get involved and involvement in the quarter-final is now a target for them.”
Bradley will get the lowdown on Toulouse from old friend Eric Ellwood, whose Connacht team faced the French giants in the pool stages.
”If you look at the group they came through, they showed they can be stunning in attack, but if you do your work properly and put them under pressure like Gloucester and Harlequins did, it can be different.
”A home draw is great for us, no question, and history shows that home sides have a big advantage in the quarter-finals, so we’ll be plotting how to take Toulouse down.”
Photo by David Cheskin/PA Wire