Bradley hails historic achievement

Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley admitted his side were representing all of Scotland after they became the first Scottish team to reach the last four of the Heineken Cup following a stunning 19-14 victory over French giants Toulouse.

Playing in front of 37,881 spectators, a record crowd for a quarter-final in Britain, Edinburgh had an early try by Mike Blair and a string of successful kicks from Greig Laidlaw to thank for the result. The hosts came from behind to overhaul the visitors, who scored an outstanding try through Timoci Matanavou and added nine points from Lionel Beauxis.

Bradley said: "All of this is about Edinburgh Rugby and, by extension, Scottish rugby. The fact that Edinburgh Rugby are now in the semi-final of a European Cup is a fantastic achievement for the club and gives us an opportunity to move forward."

He added: "We have a very strong connection with the fans who came and it's up to us to convert that into Pro12 attendances and try to move the club up."

The Edinburgh coach is now eyeing up a final four clash with his native Munster, who face Ulster on Sunday.

"I'm a Munsterman so I hope it's Munster," Bradley said. "I had a lot of good wishes from people all over Ireland."

Speaking about the game, Bradley added: "We were obviously very fearful of Toulouse's ability, in particular up front, but we also felt that just to play Toulouse one way would be too easy for them to defend.

"So what we tried to do was use multiple tactics, sometimes going wide, sometimes going close. We kicked more ball than we would normally kick because Toulouse's defence is very strong and they score a lot of tries from turnovers.

"Their breakdown work is excellent, so we just had to keep varying the target."