Edinburgh Rugby scrum-half Nic Groom has urged his side to “put their best foot forward” at BT Murrayfield on Saturday against Agen in the European Rugby Challenge Cup in order to reach the quarter-finals.

The Scottish team’s qualification hopes were dealt a blow in Round 5 with a 32-17 defeat at Bordeaux-Begles, who won Pool 3 and clinched a spot in the last eight with that victory.

But Groom is still optimistic that Edinburgh can join the French club in the quarter-finals in their Pool 3 finale this weekend.

“We need to give ourselves the best chance,” the 29-year-old told Edinburgh’s website. “We drew at home against Bordeaux and we always knew that in these last two games we’d need to take all the points we can.

“We need to put our best foot forward and get into a quarter-final. Then anything can happen.”

Groom admitted Bordeaux-Begles were more clinical in the opening 40 minutes of their Round 5 clash, opening up a 17-3 lead.

“I think we had some really good moments in the game and I think we had some really poor moments in the game,” the South African added.

“When you’re playing against a top side and those poor moments come, they hurt you. Credit to them, there weren’t many times when they wasted their chances and they got a win against us when I thought there were times when we played really well.

“We knew that they’ve got some really exciting players. I thought in the first half the scoreboard told the story. They scored two really good tries, mainly off our mistakes.

“We struggled with our set-piece ball, especially from our line-out. They exited well from their 22 and forced us into a set-piece battle – they’ve got some superstars there and they came out on top in that area.”