‘May the 4th be with you’.

The marketing gurus at Edinburgh Rugby have adopted a Star Wars theme for their side’s clash with Munster at Murrayfield on Friday night with banners proclaiming, ‘May the 4th be with you’.

And  club officials are hoping that their advertising campaign will help to attract their biggest gate of the season surpassing the 4,342 figure that witnessed the clash with Glasgow Warriors in September.  Edinburgh are currently perched in eight place in the table, one place and three points behind Friday’s opponents but perhaps more significantly, two places and four points off arch rivals Glasgow Warriors.

Besides a natural desire to finish as number one side in the Magners League there is also the opportunity for departing players such as Simon Taylor, Rob Dewey and Scott Murray to end their tenure on a high note in what will be their last outing in the Edinburgh jersey at Murrayfield.

One player however who is staying put is 21 year old centre Ben Cairns who has bucked the trend and resigned for a further two seasons. “I am really happy with the way things are going personally and looking to continue that for the next two years.

“It’s vital for us to win. We have played a lot better at home than we have away throughout the season – we had a good win against Gwent at home. Then, instead of following that up with good wins on the road, we went downhill. We were looking to do that down in Llanelli on Sunday and it just didn’t happen. These last two games are even more crucial now. We really need to get two wins especially the way Glasgow are playing at the moment. So this game is really important to get us back on the right track. We want to finish our home matches on a high.”

A product of Royal High and Currie, Cairns, in his first year as a professional player, has played wing and full back but believes outside centre is his best position, “I’ve played most of my rugby at 13. At the moment I am just happy to get as much game time as possible, whether that is on the wing or at full back or at centre, the most important thing is that I am playing,” he said.

Cairns was not involved earlier this season when Edinburgh recorded a three tries to one 21-10 win at Thomond Park.