Former Connacht coach Michael Bradley will make his 1^st return to the Sportsground since Eric Elwood took over the reins 2 seasons ago. Former Ireland international Bradley was in charge at the Sportsground for 7 seasons before leaving and eventually taking over as head coach at Edinburgh at the start of this season. Under his guidance Edinburgh have taken some big scalps in the league including Treviso and Munster and they have reached the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup carving out victories over the Cardiff Blues, Racing Metro and London Irish to reach their first quarter final since 2004.

Following Connacht’s maiden voyage in the Heineken Cup culminating in the historic victory over Harlequins in the Sportsground the scene is set for a mouth-watering fixture in the Sportsground this Friday night.

Despite Edinburgh missing a handful of players due to International duty the Scottish capital side are still expected to land in the West of Ireland with a star-studded lineup including Fijian World Cup sensation Netani Talei and the RaboDirect PRO12’s top try scorer Tim Visser. ‘The Flying Dutchman’ has crossed the line 10 times already this season and the Connacht defence will have to be water-tight to prevent the Dutch born winger adding to his phenomenal record of 45 trys in 84 appearances.

Speaking about the match Connacht’s Defence Coach Mike Forshaw said:

“Visser is a big strong winger, he pops up every-where, loves the 10 channel, and because of his size he wins a lot of contact situations. They (Edinburgh) use him as a launch player from set-piece and we’ll have to be on our toes to deal with that threat.”

Supporters are reminded that as this match is not being televised the ONLY way to catch all the action live is by getting down to the Sportsground on Friday evening. Tickets can be purchased from www.connachtrugby.ie or from www.ticketmaster.ie

Former Connacht Coach Michael Bradley (above right), Fijian backrower Netani Talei (above left) and The Flying Dutchman Tim Visser (below) are all ecpected to grace the Sportsground with their presence on Friday night (C) www.inpho.ie