Cockerill piles the pressure on Montpellier

Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill claims the pressure is all on Montpellier in their Heineken Champions Cup decider.

Cockerill's side go into Friday's BT Murrayfield encounter three points clear of their visitors in Pool 5 following their victory in Toulon last weekend.

The French side - who are coached by former Scotland boss Vern Cotter - sit ninth in the Top 14 but boast a wealth of experience with six South Africa internationals and three France players in their starting line-up.

And Cockerill has warned it will take a real team performance to secure top spot.

The former Leicester coach - who has named an unchanged team - said: I've coached against Vern before when I was at Leicester. He's a great coach, he did a great job at Clermont and he did a great job here.

"He's got a tough job at Montpellier but they were French finalists last year and probably the best team overall. They were poor for one game and unfortunately that was the final.

"He's a good coach and a good man, I look forward to pitting our wits against each other, but all the pressure is on them.

"They're the A-listers. They've won one of their last 13 away European games and that was at Glasgow, but they'll have expectations to get out of this group.

"They are the side that has spent a lot of money.

"On the face of it, they should be better than us but as ever the sum of our parts has always got to be stronger than the individuals and we have got to make that really count.''

Edinburgh could still qualify as one of the three best runners-up if they lose but they would face an anxious weekend waiting on other results and have to play away in the quarter-finals.

Their home form has been impeccable this season with 10 wins while they lost their first seven games on the road before winning on their three most recent trips.

"We have learnt how to win games,'' Cockerill said. "The players are playing with confidence, they believe in what they are doing and we have proven can compete with the big teams. But we haven't qualified yet.

"We would like to be at home and we have an opportunity to take that, as big a challenge as that is.''

Newcastle host Toulon in the other Pool 5 game and Falcons defence coach John Wells has found plenty of motivation for the dead rubber.

Wells, whose side welcome back fit-again hooker George McGuigan, told his club's website: "It's a chance to do a home-and-away double against a side who have won the Champions Cup three times in the past six years, even if by their own high standards they've had a fairly miserable season this time round.

"They've got stars left, right and centre, and even though there might have been a temptation for them to send over a second-string squad, what they've actually done is brought over most of their big guns.'