Flanker John Hardie to make first start for Edinburgh Rugby

John Hardie will make his first Guinness PRO14 start for five months when Edinburgh face Ulster on Friday night.

The Scotland flanker made his return from a three-month internal suspension when he came off the bench during last Friday's last-gasp win over Leinster.

And he will step up his comeback at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday as Richard Cockerill makes five changes with scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and number eight Cornell du Preez among the others coming in, the latter after being released from Scotland duty.

Edinburgh will jump into third place in Conference B if they beat Ulster, who have had Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding missing in recent weeks as they defend themselves from accusations of rape at Belfast Crown Court.

Cockerill said: They have a good team and very strong squad, and they've had their difficulties for obvious reasons, but now it's for us to go there and front up.

If we lose on Friday night, it's not the end of our play-off hopes. For us it's nice, as a team, that we're putting ourselves in the position where we're actually competing for play-offs - which is a step forward.

I expect Ulster to be favourites and I expect them to be confident, but I'm also confident and I believe in our playing group.'