Edinburgh back-row Hamish Watson admits his side are desperate to get back to winning ways at home, as they prepare to welcome high-flying Munster. Alan Solomons’ side have lost two games on the bounce in the GUINNESS PRO12, going down away to Zebre and Connacht after beginning their campaign with four straight victories. Edinburgh have won all three home games in the GUINNESS PRO12 so far this season, but while they beat Munster 14-13 in Limerick in the opening round of last season, they have not beaten the Irishmen at BT Murrayfield in four years. But with another big home crowd behind them once again, Watson is confident they can dominate what will be another bruising encounter. “Most games against Munster are massively physical, and are often dominated by the forwards,” he said. “Last time we played them there were loads of mauls, loads of scrums and we made a silly amount of tackles to come out on top – it was a great win away at their place. “We’re looking forward to being back home at BT Murrayfield this week. A lot of fans turned out last time we were here against Ulster and we’re still unbeaten at home, so hopefully they will get behind us again. “We’ve had a couple of losses in the last couple of weeks so we want to make amends for that.” Alan Solomons will welcome four Scotland internationals back into his line-up for the clash, with Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and WP Nel all coming into the front row. Matt Scott also returns following the World Cup at centre alongside Will Helu, who moves in from the wing to replace the injured Sam Beard. Tom Brown replaces Helu at 11, and with Phil Burleigh also injured the fully recovered Greig Tonks comes in at stand-off – scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne retaining the No.9 jersey to complete the half-back partnership. Mike Coman will again lead the team out at blindside with Alex Toolis and Cornell Du Preez moving up from the bench into the pack. Meanwhile Munster have made eight changes in their bid not to go down to back-to-back away defeats in the GUINNESS PRO12 for the first time since the turn of the year. An all new front row sees Dave Kilcoyne and Duncan Casey come back in with John Ryan making his first start of the season. Donnacha Ryan, Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Ronan O'Mahony come in to make their first starts of the season, and Uruguayan international Mario Sagario is again in line to make his first appearance for the province after being named amongst the replacements. But with Edinburgh having suffered successive defeats after their winning start, Munster assistant coach Brian Walsh knows there is a danger of a backlash. He said: “You look at all the games that Edinburgh have played and not too many teams have scored a lot of points against them. “They have a real miserly defence, they're very good at the breakdown, they're very sticky and physical in the way they defend. “I think that's the nature of the league, there are very different challenges from teams in line speed from the ones you get in Wales to Scotland. “You had two teams that wanted to play rugby last weekend, and I'm not saying it is going to be a dour battle but it will be a completely different game again this weekend.” At BT Murrayfield, 5.15pm. Live on BBC Alba/Sky Sports Referee: David Wilkinson, (IRFU,34th competition game) Assistant Referees: Neil Paterson, Bob Nevins (both SRU) Citing Commissioner: John Kirk (SRU) TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU)
