No place like home for Edinburgh

"Our home form is a big thing for us - we play with a lot of confidence at home," said Laidlaw. "Not many teams like coming up to Murrayfield, it is a big arena and we're used to playing there with a smaller crowd, even though the crowds are getting bigger.

"The size of the pitch suits us as well as it allows us to play an expansive game which suits us down to the ground. It's a big pitch and that helps us get our free-flowing type of game going.

"But we have to win the gain-line battle first, we have to get on the front foot to allow ourselves to be able to play that type of game. That's something we've been concentrating really hard on because the Blues pose a massive physical challenge.

"It will be another huge battle at the breakdown and both packs will be going at it. They've got some great exponents in and around that area with the likes of Sam Warburton and Bradley Davies, who is really aggressive there. If we don't marshal that and look after the ball, they'll cause us real problems.

"But if we're on top of that, that's when we can play our open, expansive game and hopefully do them some damage.

"Aironi Rugby really didn't show up against us in the last game at Murrayfield so we won't read too much into that but we have got some potent runners when we do get front-foot ball. The likes of Lee Jones and Chris Paterson are great broken field runners and if we can get the ball into their hands they'll cause any team problems.

"There's no hiding place in Europe and Edinburgh haven't done well in years gone by. They've only qualified for the quarters once.

"But there is no point winning the early games and going on to lose the rest of them. There's been a lot of hard work put in but this is just the start.

"It would be great to reach the quarter finals and it would be brilliant for everybody in Edinburgh if we did make it but our feet are firmly on the ground. There's still a long way to go in the competition."

And that starts with banking an essential home win on Friday night, something coach Michael Bradley is particularly conscious of. "It will certainly make life difficult for us if we do not win that one.

"We will have more composure in the more familiar surroundings of Murrayfield next week and we know we have been playing some decent enough rugby.

"I honestly think the gulf between us and the Blues is not insurmountable.

"For sure we are disappointed with the defeat in Cardiff because we started brightly enough but we didn't take our chances and convert territory to scores and, in fairness to Cardiff, they went in at 6-3 without doing a whole lot - other than doing more things right than us.

"They continued that in the second half and forced a lot of penalties out of us and that is something we have to look at as it enabled them to pull away.

"We were always chasing the game in the final quarter and that is not a position you want to be in when you are playing Cardiff."