Edinburgh on the hunt for a prop after confirming WP Nel retirement
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt admits the club is in the market for tighthead reinforcements after revealing Scotland prop WP Nel’s 12-year stint with the capital side is coming to an end.
It was only last week that Nel, who turns 38 next month, indicated he would be comfortable with retiring as he pondered whether to continue beyond the current campaign.
Everitt confirmed he would have liked Nel to play on for one more season, but it appears the player has now decided the time is right to hang up his boots.
RugbyPass revealed Edinburgh have already spoken to Northampton’s former England tighthead Paul Hill about moving north this summer as they look to fill the void created by Nel’s impending retirement.
“We’ve been looking at options at tighthead because of the retirement of WP Nel,” Everitt said on Tuesday. “We’ve also looked at replacements for [No.8] Bill Mata who is going to be leaving us [for Bristol]. So we’ve had talks with quite a few players and we’re in negotiations with them but there’s nothing finite at this stage.”
Nel, who joined Edinburgh from the Cheetahs in 2012, became only the third player to reach 200 appearances for the club when he started last Saturday’s URC defeat by Stormers in Cape Town.
He has also won 61 caps for Scotland – joint-third for a prop in the nation’s history – since qualifying via residency in 2015, coming off the bench in all four of their World Cup pool matches last year before a neck issue hampered his availability for the Six Nations.
“He’s had a good innings and a long innings,” Everitt said. “We’d have loved for him to stay on for another year and he’s been toying with this decision for some time. He enjoys the club, he enjoys Edinburgh as a city but at the end of the day, at some stage someone will wake up in the morning and say, ‘I think I’ve had enough’.
“So it looks like it could be his swan-song. That hasn’t been cast in stone but we’ve got to be proactive in how we look for our players and if there are tightheads available, we’ll certainly have a chat with them because we want to have the strongest available squad next year.”
Nel said before his landmark 200th appearance last week he would have no problem with ending his playing career, adding: “I’ve done more than enough. I’ve achieved over and above what I ever thought I would.”
The prop has started 11 of Edinburgh’s 16 games this season, including their last seven, and Everitt believes he is “in better shape now than he was in his first few years at the club”.
He backed the 37-year-old to continue locking the scrum until the end of the season as the Scottish outfit chase a URC play-off place and look to advance in the European Challenge Cup, with a last-16 meeting with Bayonne following Saturday’s URC encounter with the Sharks in Durban.
“He enjoys what he’s doing and enjoying the game of rugby but he knows the time is drawing near,” Everitt said.
“He’s still getting around the field and playing as well as he has when he was 25. I’m sure he doesn’t feel that way on a Sunday but there’s never a Monday he shirks training. He trains every Monday and every Tuesday and every Thursday.
“Normally guys at his age get a reprieve from training on Mondays and Tuesdays because of their performance on Saturday but as long as he’s fit, he wants to train.”
While Everitt seeks to bolster his options at tighthead and No.8 for next season, the head coach is optimistic of retaining the services of Scotland scrum-half Ali Price, who arrived in November on loan from Scottish rivals Glasgow for the rest of the season.
Price, who will remain in Scotland this week after his wife gave birth to their first child on Tuesday, is believed to be a target for French club Perpignan, but Everitt is keen to extend the British and Irish Lion’s stay in the capital.
“The opportunity hasn’t passed,” he said. “We see Ali as a vital cog in our team going forward and we’d love to keep him in Edinburgh. We are still in talks with Ali with regards to 24/25.”
Everitt added that Scotland lock Grant Gilchrist will miss Saturday’s clash with Sharks for personal reasons, but that wing Duhan van der Merwe, prop Pierre Schoeman, hooker Ewan Ashman and flanker Jamie Ritchie – who were all rested for the Stormers fixture after returning from Six Nations duty – would be in contention for the second leg of their mini South African tour.
A late decision will be made on Argentine full-back Emiliano Boffelli, who picked up a nerve problem in his back last week which forced him to withdraw from the side thumped 43-21 in Cape Town.
Comments on RugbyPass
The first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to comments