Edinburgh’s Harry Paterson relishing ‘huge’ Bath clash in European Challenge Cup

Harry Paterson insists Edinburgh will meet the challenge of Bath “head on” in their European Challenge Cup semi-final on Saturday.

The Hive stadium in the Scottish capital will be packed out for the visit of the Gallagher Premiership leaders, with Lyon meeting Racing 92 in the other last-four game on Sunday.

Scotland full-back Paterson, who has signed a two-year contract extension, recalled the excitement of the sold-out United Rugby Championship clash with the Sharks earlier this month, which ended in an 18-17 defeat, as he looked forward to a huge fixture this weekend.

The 23-year-old said: “I think we’re sold out. It should be great. The crowd was amazing at the Sharks game which was sold out a few weeks ago.

“Hopefully we can do one better than that and get to the final in Cardiff.

“It’s huge. Bath are a great team, similar to the Sharks.

“We’ll respect what they have but not shy away from the challenge.

“And we’ll just attack it head on and get to that final.”

Paterson has suffered with a series of injuries this season and is glad to be back in action.

He said: “It’s an interesting one because it wasn’t really one big injury.

“It was kind of a lot – concussion, hamstring, a foot injury.

“You think you’re getting somewhere and then something else happens.

“But fingers crossed I found some consistency with training and got a few games under my belt so, in my head at least, the more of that I get under my belt the better chance I have of staying on the pitch, which is great.

“I study sports science, so I kind of try and use that to my advantage and leave no stone unturned and just listen to the experts around me and things like that.

“But the biggest thing is just getting through those first few weeks of training back and then you can build from there. So that that’s what we’ve done.

“I’ve been involved the past few weeks which has been great, some big games as well, especially this weekend.”

On his new deal, Paterson said: “I’m really chuffed with it.

“It’s nice to sign something and just be able to just focus on the rugby for another two years, which is great.”