Paterson: Edinburgh must be ready

Edinburgh star Chris Paterson says the side will need to be in top form to come out of a tough pool in next season’s Heineken Cup.

Edinburgh were drawn with two former winners and a former runner-up in Bath, Ulster and Stade Francais in a tough looking Pool Four and full back Paterson thinks they will need to show the record breaking form they closed the season just gone with to come out of that grouping.

"We are really confident that we can carry on the progress that was made last season by challenging for a place in the knockout stages,” the player was quoted as saying by The Scotsman.

“Last season we managed to break a number of records and it will be an absolutely perfect achievement if we could go one further than we did in 2004 when we qualified for the knock-outs in Europe.

"I'm really excited about this draw and looking forward to getting stuck in. I've never played Stade Francais before so I'm really looking forward to it.

"We played Bath in pre-season and they are a brilliant club who play an exciting brand of rugby which should make the game entertaining. It really is a tough draw whatever way you look at it [because] there are two previous winners and also a double finalist in our pool.

"After the way we played last season [when they climbed to second in The Magners League] we are bound to have a confident team and they really need to perform and take the next step up.

"Of course Stade Francais have the capability to switch our tie to the main Paris stadium as they have done before to attract a crowd of 80,000.

"But whatever happens we can be respectful of all these opponents without being fearful."