EDINBURGH absolutely have to hit the ground running in their league season, says Richard Cockerill, the head coach. That means he can't rest too many of his leading stars when they take on Bath tonight in the first of their pre-season games.

So, despite finishing their season only seven weeks ago in Argentina, the likes of Stuart McInally, Ben Toolis and Jamie Ritchie are back in action this evening as their head coach tries to build the units in his new-look squad that he will need in the season ahead.

"We want a good start to the season. We need to get our combinations working, especially around our nine and 10 who are new. We have lots of good combinations to pick from and some real strength there," he said.

"We can’t start our players in round one [of the Guinness PRO14], they have to play and get embedded in what we are doing."

Despite his need to get players onto the field, Cockerill has still been able to rest some. Blair Kinghorn, Allan Dell and Grant Gilchrist are among those rested while Magnus Bradbury has tweaked a calf muscle and is on the list of injured.

It also means there are more than a few players making their club debuts, including Jack Blain and Jamie Hodgson from the academy, while Henry Pyrgos is on the bench and waiting for his chance to complete his conversion from a Glasgow player to an Edinburgh one.

"He is a Scotsman, he has a lot of experience and needed the opportunity to get back to where he would like to get to and compete for a first-choice spot for Scotland," Cockerill explained of the scrum half's move. "He is very committed to us and I am delighted to have his experience in the squad.

"We were looking for a nine who would add strength to our squad. If that was Henry [Pyrgos], brilliant; if it wasn’t, I was always going to push to go into the market place. He is a perfect fit for us and will suit what we are trying to do very, very well.

"I am working with the union the whole time – I am quite persuasive when I need to be. I put my argument forward about having another nine. We knew it was a position we needed to strengthen and to be fair to Scotty Johnson [the director of rugby] and Mark Dodson [the chief executive], they wanted to make it work.

"The way it has turned out with [Nick] Frisby going to Glasgow plus two Scottish nines already at Glasgow and Henry coming here, it is a perfect scenario – the same as we had with George Turner [who moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow] last year at hooker. It makes sense and has worked out well for both parties.

"My job is to fight the corner for Edinburgh and make sure we can be as good as we need to be. I am delighted to get Henry and delighted to get the support from the union."

Pyrgos is likely to quickly become a key figure in the Edinburgh line up. He brings a huge amount of experience to the job, having played 147 games for Glasgow while winning 27 Scotland caps, two as captain.

Along with Simon Hickey, the other new half-back signing, he is likely to be given the job of masterminding Cockerill's game plan most weeks – certainly in most of the big games when he is fit.

His career had stalled a bit at Glasgow as he slipped first behind Ali Price at the start of last season and then behind George Horne when Price came back from Scotland duties "overweight and sluggish" – as Dave Rennie, the head coach, put it earlier in the week.

While Cockerill is emphasising the competition for places, the odds are that Pyrgos is expected to forge a partnership with Hickey – a New Zealander good enough to have captained their Under 20s side four years ago – and they are going to be the go-to pairing.

With John Barclay, the Scotland captain, leading from behind the scenes as he recovers from his ruptured Achilles tendon, a lot of on-field responsibility will devolve on these two in key roles within the leadership group.

"It is great to have that experience," said Cockerill. "Hickey has captained [an] age group in New Zealand and that does not happen lightly, he is a good leader and understands the game very well.

"Pyrgos has got good experience – he has captained Scotland, he has captained Glasgow.

"It's the same as with Mark Bennett when he came across but also the same with [Blair] Kinghorn, Lewis Carmichael, [Grant] Gilchrist and Stuart McInally, who are very, very good as well.

"John Barclay, though not playing adds to the leadership group away from the field and will be instrumental as part of our leadership once he gets back on the field."