TIME is running out for Edinburgh to start climbing the Guinness PRO12 table if they are to have any hope of reaching the top half and claiming a place in the elite European Champions Cup, head coach Duncan Hodge has admitted.

The side is currently ninth, but tonight in Belfast play Ulster, the team they must catch to move into the leading six.

Currently Edinburgh are 14 points behind the Irish province but could cut that gap significantly with a win; conversely defeat would leave them 17 or 18 points adrift with only eight games to go.

"We have talked about it," said Hodge. "We have two games away against Irish provinces and then two games at home; they are all huge. We lose a few players to the Six Nations and have players coming back late, but that is the same for all teams.

"It is a big period in trying to climb the league."

Hodge left Myreside last week a frustrated man after seeing his side go down to a single point home defeat by Munster, but he insists the team can still finish the season with a flourish.

They all know that the next few weeks, when they are less affected by international call ups than many rivals, will be a key period, though Ulster have had a couple of players, including Tommy Bowe, the wing, return from the Ireland camp. They also have Marcel. Coetzee, the Springbok flanker, available for the first time after getting injured just before he arrived in Belfast.

To tackle that challenge, Hodge has left the side that failed narrowly against Munster almost untouched, the only change in the starting XV being Viliame Mata coming in for Cornell Du Preez, fuelling speculation that Scotland might take the back row to France as a travelling reserve.

With only five players on Scotland duty, Edinburgh are well placed to take advantage of the games over the Six Nations window, but captain Neil Cochrane accepts the first thing it simply to get back into the winning habit in the league again.

"Every team will be going through the same issues with the Six Nations," he said. "You have to crack on, there is no option. We have played Ulster before, we know how to beat them, there is nothing to be nervous of, but we have to be accurate and clinical.

"We have highlighted this next block of games, and made small targets for ourselves regarding the number of points we want to get from those games. We have that as players; we are trying to move the club forward, trying to move up the league, and have the European Challenge Cup as well. It is small steps.

"It is fine margins, last week we were only a point off Munster. We are getting into positions where we could put teams away, but whether it is a lack of confidence or not being clinical when we get opportunities – making mistakes and compounding errors – that is the difference between where we are at and a team like Munster - they found a way to win against us."

Ulster L Ludik; J Stockdale, D Cave, S Olding, C Piutau; P Nelson, P Marshall; A Warwick, J Andrew, R Lutton; K Treadwell, A O'Connor; R Diack, C Henry (capt), M Coetzee. Replacements J Murphy, C Black, W Herbst, P Browne, S Reidy, D Shanahan, S McCloskey, T Bowe.

Edinburgh B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, C Dean, P Burleigh, T Brown; J Tovey, S Kennedy; J Cosgrove, N Cochrane (capt), M McCallum, F McKenzie, B Toolis, V Mata, J Hardie, M Bradbury. Replacements S McInally, D Appiah, N Beavon, L Carmichael, V Fihaki, S Hidalgo-Clyne, M Allen, R Scholes.