TWO East Lothian rugby stars were delighted as Edinburgh Rugby booked their place in the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

They secured a place in the last eight with a 49-3 thrashing of Romanian minnows Timisoara Saracens at Myreside late last month.

Tom Brown, who grew up in North Berwick and has played more than 100 games for the club, was pleased with the victory.

He said: “They’re a big side and we knew we’d need to break them down.

“We had to go at them from the start and we were patient and finished off some good tries. We got the four tries [bonus point] in the first half and we were looking to add a couple more in the second half.”

Fellow North Berwick man centre Chris Dean was similarly pleased with their performance against the Romanian minnows.

Immediately after the match, he told Courier Sport: “It was nice to go in [at half-time] knowing we had the bonus point [to secure a home quarter-final] and we were able to come out and work on a few things in the second half.”

Dean, a former North Berwick RFC player, also praised the Myreside crowd in Edinburgh’s first competitive game at the venue for more than a decade.

He said: “It’s brilliant and it was great with a packed crowd.”

“I really enjoyed it and hopefully the fans really enjoyed it as well – I thought it was a really good set-up.”

Edinburgh Rugby, who also included a third county ace, ex-North Berwick man Lewis Carmichael as a replacement, will now face La Rochelle in the last eight of the Challenge Cup.

The last eight clash will be at BT Murrayfield on March 31.