Paul Hodgson will partner Adrian Jarvis at scrum-half at Murrayfield, while Alex Corbisiero, James Buckland and Leo Halavatau will start in the front row.
Bob Casey will captain the side in the second row alongside James Sandford with Matt Garvey moving to blindside flanker.
Despite being out of the running for the quarter-finals, London Irish head coach Toby Booth said his team would approach this match like any other.
"We play every game to win it and this weekend is no exception," said Booth.
"We will go up to Edinburgh this weekend to be competitive and look to come away with a result."
Centre John Houston has been promoted to Edinburgh's front-line for the decisive clash.
He starts in place of centre Nick De Luca who has failed to recover sufficiently from a head knock sustained in the club's 27-24 win over Racing Metro at the Stade du Manoir last weekend.
The former Hawick back will start at inside-centre, meaning Matt Scott moves to outside-centre and Jim Thompson takes Houston's vacated place on the bench.
The match will be Houston's 20th appearance in the competition.
Roddy Grant replaces Ross Rennie at openside flank in the clash which is crucial for the hosts who are still chasing a play-off berth.
Edinburgh last qualified for the competition's quarter-finals nine years ago and go into the last round of matches level on 17 points with Cardiff.
To secure their spot in the play-offs, Edinburgh must win with a bonus point and hope that Cardiff do not follow suit in their clash against Racing Metro.
Edinburgh: Paterson, Jones, Scott, Houston, Visser, Laidlaw, Blair, Jacobsen, Ford, Cross, Gilchrist, Cox, Denton, Grant, Talei.
Replacments: Walker, Traynor, Gilding, Lozada, McInally, Godman, Thompson, Brown.
London Irish: Armitage, Ojo, Spratt, Hape, Thompstone, Jarvis, Hodgson, Gray, Sisi, Garvey, Casey, Sandford, Halavatau, Buckland, Corbisiero.
Replacements: Blaney, Lahiff, Rautenbach, Kennedy, Evans, Joseph, Shingler, Samson.
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