'Rumours': Sean Everitt weighs in as speculation intensifies over futures of 3 Edinburgh Rugby players

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt has urged young scrum-half Hector Patterson to focus on continuing to improve his game following a report linking him with clubs in France and England.

Patterson, 21, has made a big impression after making his debut against Zebre towards the end of last season. He has scored three tries in his six appearances for Edinburgh and his contract expires at the end of the season.

Everitt is keen to keep the player at the club and says he is unaware of interest from elsewhere. He would rather Patterson shut out the external noise and concentrate on continuing to develop. The former Scotland Under-20 international will start again for Edinburgh in Saturday’s game against Zebre in Parma.

Hector Patterson has impressed for Edinburgh Rugby at the start of the season. | SNS Group

Asked whether he had been encouraging Patterson to stay at Edinburgh, Everitt said: “To be honest, we haven't had any formal conversations around that. I believe that they're all rumours up until now that you've mentioned.

“Hector's got a job to do. He's got to focus on his performances. He had four URC games last year and he's had two up until now [this season], so there's a lot of growth to be done.

“Obviously, we want to keep Hector at Edinburgh, but I'm not aware of opportunities that he has elsewhere.”

Patterson, who hails from Denholm in the Borders and came through the ranks at Hawick, has added a pugnacious edge to Edinburgh. Assistant coach Stevie Lawrie likened his style to the great Gary Armstong but Everitt is keen for him to continue his scrum-half education and seemed to suggest talk of a Scotland call-up for Patterson was premature.

“I think Hector's got to understand where he is in the pecking order,” said Everitt. “You've got Ben White and you've got Jamie Dobie and you've got Ali Price playing in France and you've got George Horne playing well at Glasgow like he did on the weekend.

“There's always going to be work to do for youngsters when they come through. Like I said, it's about them sticking to task and making sure that they work on their fundamentals and they become consistent in their game.”

The same would seem to apply to winger Mal Satala, another Edinburgh player who has started the season well and has been reportedly catching the eye of clubs in England. He, too, is out of contract at the end of the season.

“We would like to keep Mal at Edinburgh Rugby,” said Everitt. “I can't comment for what's happening out there. There's all sorts of rumours that go around when a particular individual plays well.

“Like I said, our youngsters are on a growth path. We've given them a pathway at the club to be able to get exposure at the highest level. The great thing for us is that they've taken their opportunities really well when given those opportunities.”

Everitt also said that there had been no conversations as yet about a new contract for James Grayson. The experienced stand-off joined the club in the summer on a one-year deal after a spell in Japan and has played a big part in Edinburgh’s opening two wins.

“We haven't spoken about that as yet,” said Everitt. “I'm sure that conversation will come up in the near future. Like I said, we're only two games in and these players need to string six consecutive games together for us to have an accurate opinion on them.”

Return of Ewan Ashman

Grayson, Satala and Patterson are all in Edinburgh’s starting XV for Saturday’s match in Parma where there will also be first competitive appearances of the season for Ewan Ashman and Mosese Tuipulotu.

Harri Morris drops to the bench to make way for Scotland hooker Ashman while Tuipulotu replaces Kienan Higgins at inside centre in the only two changes made by Everitt to the side which beat the Stormers last week. Ashman has shaken off a hip problem and Tuipulotu has recovered from the concussion he suffered in the pre-season game against Harlequins.

There are also a couple of new faces on the bench where Marshall Sykes could make his first appearance of the season following shoulder surgery and academy loosehead prop Jamie Stewart, 20, is in line for his professional debut.

Meanwhile, Everitt said that flanker/hooker Dylan Richardson had “undergone a procedure” and would be out until after the November Test window. Back-rower Ben Muncaster will be missing for a similar period following ankle surgery. D’arcy Rae is to have more scans before deciding the next course of action. The tighthead prop has been sidelined by back and calf issues.

Zebre Parma v Edinburgh Rugby line-ups

URC round 3, Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma, Saturday, 3pm BST

Zebre Parma: Giovanni Montemauri; Mirko Belloni, Giulio Bertaccini, Damiano Mazza, Simone Gesi; Giacomo Da Re, Alessandro Fusco (capt); Sergio Pelliccioli, Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, Juan Barbotti, Matteo Canali, Leonard Krumov, Alessandro Ortombina. Samuele Locatelli, Davide Ruggeri. Replacements: Francisco Minervino, Federico Pisani, Filippo Alongi, Giacomo Ferrari, Bautista Stavile, Patricio Baronio, Tommaso Allan, Marco Zanon

Edinburgh Rugby: Piers O’Conor; Malelili Satala, Matt Currie (co-capt), Mosese Tuipulotu, Geordie Gwynn; James Grayson, Hector Patterson; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Callum Hunter-Hill, Glen Young, Liam McConnell, Freddy Douglas, Magnus Bradbury (co-capt). Replacements: Harri Morris, Jamie Stewart, Paul Hill, Marshall Sykes, Tom Currie, Conor McAlpine, Cammy Scott, Rory McHaffie.

Referee: Adam Jones (WRU).