Intermin head coach Nick Scrivener is demanding that his players pull together the positive parts of the performances at Dragons and Munster and get back to winning ways.
Edinburgh showed an eye for the tryline in Newport, crossing three times in defeat, and then brought improved continuity and coherence to their all-round game at Thomond Park.
Scrivener wants to see both these elements operating in concert at Parc y Scarlets, as well as further improvements at the scrum and breakdown, as Edinburgh seek their first success at the Llanelli venue.
The former Australia A, ACT Brumbies and Canberra Vikings coach confirmed: “The attitude and effort from the players were first class against Munster, and we definitely got better in the areas we’d been highlighting beforehand.
“While we were pleased with those improvements, we recognise that it wasn’t enough to win us the match, and so we’ve got to push on at least another couple of levels against Scarlets on Thursday night.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m repeating myself, but when you go away from home, it’s the bread and butter that counts. You’ve got to get a number of basic things right, all at once, to have a chance of staying in the game.”
There are four changes, three of them enforced, to the starting line-up from Limerick. Chris Paterson, Geoff Cross and Ross Rennie are involved in preparations for Scotland’s RBS 6 Nations Championship game against Ireland at Murrayfield on Sunday, and are replaced by Jim Thompson, David Young and Alan MacDonald respectively.
The fourth switch sees Lewis Niven come in for Kyle Traynor at loose-head prop to make his first Magners League start.
Edinburgh 15 Jim Thompson 14 Lee Jones 13 Ben Cairns 12 James King 11 Tim Visser 10 David Blair 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain); 1 Lewis Niven 2 Andrew Kelly 3 David Young 4 Scott MacLeod 5 Steven Turnbull 6 Fraser McKenzie 8 Netani Talei 7 Alan MacDonald
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker 17 Kyle Traynor 18 Jack Gilding 19 Esteban Lozada 20 Roddy Grant 21 Ross Samson 22 Simon Webster 23 Tom Brown
