Edinburgh fast track 2 returning Lions into side for URC opener

Sean Everitt is confident his Edinburgh side are ready for their United Rugby Championship opener away to Zebre on Saturday.

The side from the Scottish capital are without several key players through injury, including summer signings Charlie McCaig and Rhys Litterick and talismanic Scotland wing Darcy Graham.

But Everitt, who hands competitive debuts to loosehead James Whitcombe and centre Piers O’Connor, is encouraged by the work his players have done since returning from their summer break on July 21.

“I think everyone’s raring to go,” said the head coach, whose side finished seventh in the regulation URC table before losing to Bulls in the quarter-finals.

“It’s been a long pre-season, it’s been nine weeks, the guys have played two games now and we can’t wait to start. We’re all looking forward to it and excited about what it might bring.

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Zebre

31 - 28

Full-time

Edinburgh

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“I think we’re well equipped if you look at the amount of hours we’ve spent on the training pitch, particularly over the last four to five weeks because we’ve been able to train really well with the numbers that we’ve had.

“We got a lot of 15 v 15 training so everyone is well equipped. We’ve got two new caps this week which is exciting for them but the rest of the team have all played together before.”

Everitt has named key duo Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman on the bench after their return to training was delayed by their involvement with the British and Irish Lions over the summer.

“It is part of their integration,” said the coach. “They’ve been training with us for a few weeks now, they are ready to play but just from a cohesion point of view, it will be good for those guys to come off the bench as part of the integration back into rugby.”

Zebre finished second-bottom of the URC last term but were unbeaten in their two matches against Edinburgh.

“They’re a difficult team to play,” said Everitt. “They got some good results last year. They would probably be disappointed that they never got into the top eight. They had five wins while seventh place (Edinburgh) only took eight wins.

“They’re a team that can beat anyone on their day.”

Edinburgh team to Zebre Parma:
15. Wes Goosen, 14. Harry Paterson, 13. Piers O’Conor, 12. James Lang, 11. Jack Brown, 10. Ben Healy, 9. Ben Vellacott, 1. James Whitcombe*, 2. Ewan Ashman, 3. Paul Hill, 4. Marshall Sykes, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Liam McConnell, 7. Luke Crosbie, 8. Magnus Bradbury CAPTAIN

Replacements: 16. Paddy Harrison, 17. Pierre Schoeman, 18. D’arcy Rae, 19. Sam Skinner, 20. Hamish Watson, 21. Charlie Shiel, 22. Findlay Thomson, 23. Duhan van der Merwe