The 25-year-old outshone fellow Scot Dan Parks in Edinburgh’s narrow defeat to Cardiff Blues at the weekend and will come up against former Sale team-mate and current England full-back Ben Foden at Murrayfield.

But he said: “This is going to be the biggest game I’ve started for Edinburgh and one I’m really looking forward to.

“Northampton are a good side and I know a few of their players from playing with them at Sale, like Foden, so I know their attacking strengths.

“We will have to stop their driving game and and their attack, but we know that if we do things as well as we can we will cause them problems as well.

“But after the Cardiff game we know we’re close. We gave possession away too easily at times on Saturday and there were times when we did have possession but we just didn't quite hold it long enough when we had them under pressure.”