Edinburgh skipper Greig Laidlaw says his side has nothing to lose going into Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final against Ulster - and that makes them a genuine threat.

The Scottish club go to the Aviva Stadium as underdogs and are all too aware that they need to raise their game having already lost twice to their opponents this year in the RaboDirect PRO12, going down 20-42 at home and losing 38-16 in Ulster.

Moreover Edinburgh have lost their last six games against Irish sides and have ended up on the wrong end of the result on their last 12 trips to Ireland.

Throw in the fact that they've never played at the Aviva Stadium before and the odds seem stacked against Laidlaw and his side as they prepare for their first foray in the last-four of the competition.

Reflecting on the recent results against Ulster, Laidlaw told Rugby Club: "They'll be confident from that - it's obviously not the best for us but these games are gone. It's a new challenge for us.

"We'll take plenty of confidence from our form in the Heieneken Cup this year; we've won a couple of games on the road already - at London Irish and Racing Metro. So we are team with nothing to fear and nothing to lose and I think that's a dangerous team."

Loyal

Around three-quarters of the 50,000 fans attending the sold out Aviva Stadium clash are expected to get behind the Ulstermen, but Laidlaw isn't daunted by the prospect.

"Obviously the Ulster boys will be happy with that; their fans are great fans, especially when you play up at Ravenhill. They are very vocal fans, very loyal.

"Hopefully it won't make too much difference; hopefully we will get a good start to the game and maybe silence them. The fans aren't on the pitch at the end of the day - we will just be playing Ulster and that's all we'll be worrying about."

It was Laidlaw's penalty that secured Edinburgh's quarter-final victory over four-time champions Toulouse and the 26-year-old said there has been a buzz about the city ever since.

"It was a marvellous occasion for the club," he reflected. "The players really enjoy playing in these big games - there were 30,000 people here and we were absolutely delighted to win the game. It was to date probably the biggest game in the club's history.

"[The kick] was fantastic - it is why you play the game. You grow up and you want to be involved in these games. As soon as it flew over the crowd sort of went crazy and all of the boys did as well - it was a great feeling and one we're trying to build on going forward into this weekend.

"This is the first time since I've been involved with the club at Edinburgh that I have felt that buzz around about the city. All sorts of things have been going on in the city and here at Murrayfield. It's great to see; I think there is support out there for Edinburgh if we are going to be in these big games."

Confidence

Edinburgh - second from bottom in the RaboDirect PRO12 table - have saved their best rugby for the Heineken Cup, where Laidlaw says County Cork-born head coach Michael Bradley has brought the best of the team.

"Michael's background, from where he comes from - the Heineken Cup is their sort of baby. I've certainly felt that this year," he said.

"He's very good with the young players - he puts them in there and gives them a lot of confidence to play. He lets the more experienced guys take control at times, although he has got a lot of his own ideas as well and is quite set in stone on some of the things. So he's got a good balance with how he coaches.

"He likes us to be able to open the game up. We tried to do that in the second half against Toulouse. It was quite tight in the first half; 'play a little bit more wide' was his message for the second half and it worked very well for us. We managed to come away with a result on that one.

"It suits our individual players as well - we've got dangerous broken field runners and we like to try and break the game up when we can."