Destiny surely decreed that Scott MacLeod's first start for Edinburgh following his return to Scotland last month would be at his former club Llanelli's new home ground.

The fixture's timing was just right for the Scottish internationalist, who has been at the centre of two drugs investigations in the past year, to acquaint himself with the Edinburgh set-up and regain match fitness.

Although MacLeod is not ready to make any assumptions about selection, with the starting XV yet to be announced, the prospect of making his first appearance at a ground that was set to be his home when the Scarlets moved to the new stadium mid-season is tantalising.

"Hopefully I'll be involved because I think there's only three locks fit," the 29-year-old said. "It's always good playing against your mates and trying to get one up on them. I want to show them that I'll be sorely missed, so it's really exciting for me."

MacLeod made his debut a fortnight ago off the bench in Munster but has clearly spent enough time watching rugby, which was a major factor in his move. "We came to an agreement," he said. "I wasn't that happy, they Scarlets were happy to let me go. It was an easy decision to make. The whole thing for me was to get back playing. I'm not happy sitting on the bench or not being involved. I had a few offers on the table, but Edinburgh was a no-brainer for me."

That is largely down to the presence of Andy Robinson, the head coach, who believes he can help produce an even better player than the one who has won 21 caps.

"I think so," he agreed. "Even when I felt I was playing quite well during the Six Nations and in Argentina last year, Andy would point things out to me that I wasn't doing right. It's obvious when you look back at the videos, things that I should have been doing I haven't.

"That's exactly what you want as a player. It's no good getting told that you're crap or that you're brilliant. You need constructive criticism so you have something to work on for the future. I've never thought I was the best player in the world, but whether on the international scene or the Magners League I do feel I've got a lot to come and hopefully that will be developed with Andy."

He noted the Robinson regime is very different to what he had become used to since. "We probably train much harder than at Llanelli," he said. "You can get in a comfort zone down there. It's pretty easy days . . . half days here and there. Training is a lot harder in Edinburgh than I've been used to.

"In Llanelli they want you to be as fresh as you possibly can be for the game, but I suppose here it's more a mentality that you train hard, you play hard. I've been loving it. It's been awesome."

In short, MacLeod clearly hopes this is the beginning of a new chapter after the roller-coaster of 2008 when, on the rugby field, he made five successive Scotland starts for the first time in his career, off it celebrated the birth of his first child, yet found his life thrown into turmoil.

While he paid tribute to Nigel Davies, the Scarlets coach, for his support when he was accused of drug offences and dismissed any suggestion that the Welsh province had disowned him, he gave an open and honest account of how he felt about the treatment he received when he was accused.

"I felt I was hung out to dry," said MacLeod. "The whole injustice was what played on my mind. To get a phone call saying you are guilty until you can prove you are innocent . . . they didn't need to prove anything.

"To be put in a position where somebody's telling you that they think you're guilty of something, they're not quite sure what, but they think you might have done something that they're unaware of, I think's crazy. It's done now. I've got past it.

"It has cost me in a lot of ways, a lot of things. I don't know if I would have been picked for Scotland. You can't take any Scotland cap for granted, but it would have been nice to put myself in contention for selection."

His new coaches suggested yesterday that it could take six to nine months for MacLeod to get back to his Test best having gone eight months, from the second Test in Argentina, to last month's Edinburgh second-team meeting with Crawshay's Welsh without starting a game. However, after playing for the Scotland A last Friday, he feels he is making rapid progress.

"I don't feel I'm right there yet. I'm noticing things in games where I'm not quite reacting as quickly as I'd like to, but I certainly feel like I'm getting better all the time," said MacLeod.