'Get into them' - Edinburgh send message to Bath's Scottish contingent ahead of Champions Cup clash

Ashman and Co head south on Friday night to conclude their Pool 2 campaign against Bath at the Rec. Currently sitting second in the six-team group on ten points behind the West Country outfit, Edinburgh are in a strong position and will be aware of what’s required when gameweek three concludes on Sunday when Munster face Toulon.

The top four teams in Edinburgh’s group advance to the knock-out stages. Edinburgh may get away with defeat at Bath but much will depend on the results in Gloucester v Toulon and Munster v Castres. The best way for Edinburgh not to rely on favours elsewhere is by taking care of business themselves.

Edinburgh were not at their best against Gloucester. They trailed 18-5 at the break against a team sitting second bottom of the PREM. To their credit, the hosts rallied. Ashman was among the scorers as Edinburgh’s forwards drove them over the line.

"I think it was pretty even in the first half,” said Ashman. “But they just converted better than us. I think we knew that and the belief was there. It kind of just had to be like, ‘go back to our principles, physical. Work harder than them’. And we knew that it would come and it did eventually.

“So I’m really proud of the resilience and the grit, which is exactly what we need from these boys. We count on that. That's the aim, just to keep repeating that.

“You know, if we have that kind of performance against Bath, they'll put you away fairly early. So it's great to get the five points against Gloucester, absolutely buzzing. Did the job that we needed to do. But take the learnings and up it. We need to up it again massively next week.”

Edinburgh faced Bath in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup back in April at Hive Stadium and lost 39-24. Johan van Graan’s side have some very familiar faces in Scotland internationalists Finn Russell, Cam Redpath and Josh Bayliss. Ashman is keen to snare the bragging rights with a Six Nations camp just around the corner.

“It's always fun playing against those boys,” continued Ashman. “So I'm excited to see them and have a good crack at them. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking [getting one over on Russell]. Yeah, Redpath hasn't been much better either, so we need to get into them. Bayliss is a nice guy, so I won't say anything about him, but those two, you definitely want the bragging rights over them! So we'll try and get them.

“But obviously a quality team, and probably one of the best in Europe. So it's exactly who you want to go toe-to-toe with. We just need to get that consistency and get kind of a Hive-like performance away from home.

“They kind of impose a game on you, play with the ball in hand because of quality attack. And if you give them a lot of ball, there's only so much brave defending you can do. You can't defend for 60 minutes against that kind of talent. Go and throw some punches down there - we're really looking forward to it.”