All change at Edinburgh Rugby as 164-cap quartet play final game
Everitt confident new signings can help club continue progressing
Sean Everitt is confident the influx of new players at Edinburgh can help them build on the progress they made over the course of a season which saw them qualify for the United Rugby Championship play-offs and reach the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.
The campaign came to an end in South Africa on Saturday with a 42-33 defeat by the Bulls in the quarter-finals of the URC. It was the first time since 2022 that Edinburgh had made it as far in the competition and although they started and finished strongly in tough conditions at Loftus Versfeld they were undone by a decisive spell either side of half-time which saw them concede 31 unanswered points.
It was the final Edinburgh game for a handful of senior players, with Jamie Ritchie, Mark Bennett, Ali Price and Javan Sebastian all bowing out. The quartet has amassed 164 Scotland caps and Edinburgh are losing a lot of experience. In addition, fellow internationals Dave Cherry, Emiliano Boffelli, Matt Scott and Jamie Hodgson are also leaving along with Robin Hislop, Jake Henry, Nathan Sweeney and Jack Hocking.
In their place comes a number of new faces, only one of whom is a full international. Scotland hooker Dylan Richardson has signed from the Sharks, and Scottish-qualified props Rhys Litterick, from Cardiff, and James Whitcombe, from Leicester Tigers, are also joining. In addition, wingers Malelili Satala and Finlay Doyle are coming from Leicester and Loughborough University, respectively, along with utility back Piers O’Conor from Connacht, centre Charlie McCaig from Exeter Chiefs and loosehead Ben White from Melrose.
It is a big turnover of personnel but Everitt believes they can bed in quickly.
“I'm very confident,” said the Edinburgh coach. “Obviously, there's a lot of work to do with the youngsters that we have in the group. There's quite a long way between now and the first game and a lot of hard work. What we mustn't do is forget the amount of work that we've put in now and the progress that we've made so that we can hit the ground running in round one against Zebre away from home, which is going to be a tricky fixture.
“We are building from within our structure, so it's not as though we're going to lack cohesion. If anything, it's going to bring Edinburgh Rugby a lot of energy, having new faces around and some of the new players that we're bringing in have played top-level rugby in the English Premiership. Whitcombe has played there and Rhys Litterick is playing for Cardiff. Cardiff just missed out on the play-offs and then Piers O'Conor has done really well and played every game except one, I think, for Connacht. That will bring something different to the group, so it's actually exciting times for us.”
Reflecting on the season, Everitt felt his squad grew over the course of a campaign which had several peaks and troughs but ended with Edinburgh producing some of their best rugby to beat South African sides the Lions and Bulls in the Challenge Cup and then securing the back-to-back bonus-point wins over Connacht and Ulster they needed to make the URC play-offs.
The low points were a 55-21 drubbing by the Lions in Johannesburg and their failure to win either of the games with Zebre. Honours were even with Glasgow at one win apiece although Franco Smith’s side retained the 1872 Cup on aggregate.
“It's been a challenging season,” said Everitt. “We had a tough start with Leinster at home at full strength and getting on the plane the next day and coming to South Africa for two games. And then we pulled it together quite nicely up until the international break in November.
“We staggered along. We were good but we were inconsistent in our performance as well and didn't always get the results. But if you look at what the guys have achieved to get where they were and then to get into this position of the quarter-final, their efforts have to be commended.
“It's not easy to go into the last two rounds of competition needing 10 points to qualify. So, the fight that this team shows is really encouraging.
"We've got a good environment. The players are proud of playing for Edinburgh. We saw that on Saturday. I know we fell short but those are the positives we can take out. There's a lot of growth that has taken place over the season. So, you can't look at this game in isolation.
“And we're certainly excited about what we can bring next year.”
Scorers: Bulls: Tries: Hanekom, Kriel, Vorster, Moodie, Johannes, Nortje. Cons: Johannes 3. Pens: Johannes 2. Edinburgh: Tries: Goosen 2, Thompson 2, Ashman. Cons: Thompson 4.
Yellow cards: De Klerk (Bulls, 3min), JF Van Heerden (Bulls, 59min), Thompson (Edinburgh, 60min).
Bulls: W le Roux; C Moodie (D Williams 14-23, 50-64), D Kriel, H Vorster (S Gans 64), S De Klerk; K Johannes, E Papier (Z Burger 62); J-H Wessels (S Matanzima 64), J Grobbelaar (A van der Merwe 48), W Louw (M Smith 64), C Wiese (J Kirsten 69), JF Van Heerden, M Coetzee (M Van Staden 48), R Nortje, C Hanekom (M van Staden 34-42).
Edinburgh: W Goosen; D Graham (M Bennett 5-14), M Currie, J Lang (Bennett 52), H Paterson; R Thompson (B Healy 71), A Price; P Schoeman (B Venter 50), E Ashman (P Harrison 59), D Rae (J Sebastian 20-30, 50), M Sykes, S Skinner, J Ritchie (B Muncaster 52), H Watson, M Bradbury (L McConnell 73). Replacement: C McAlpine.
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU).
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.