Edinburgh ready to unleash the Scottish 'Beast' against Ospreys

Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt believes he has a potential world-class prop on his hands who can develop along similar lines to South Africa World Cup winners such as Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe.

Ollie Blyth-Lafferty is only 19 and has yet to play a single minute of senior rugby as he awaits his debut off the bench in Saturday’s URC match against Ospreys at Hive Stadium.

Earlier this week Everitt described the Scotland Under-20s tighthead, who is 6ft 4in tall and weighs 136 kg (21st 6lb), as “a monster of a rugby player”.

An ankle injury sustained by Scotland prop D’arcy Rae, who could be sidelined for two months, has opened the door for Blyth-Lafferty, whose elder brother Jerry – a hooker – is also part of Edinburgh’s academy.

Everitt admits he is excited to see how the younger sibling fares as he embarks on a three-year plan to make him one of the world’s elite tightheads.

“I think the talk about Ollie has been there since I’ve been here – that’s nearly two and a half years ago – so I think he’s quite used to that,” Everitt said.

“I think in my time as a coach, we’ve had a young ‘Beast’ coming through the ranks at Sharks, as well as a Ntuthuko Mchunu [for Stormers] just lately that became a Springbok a year ago. They all went through it as well.

“It’s about understanding where they are and also understanding that while we’re using this opportunity for them to grow as rugby players, they’re also being selected to perform. And I think Ollie knows that.

“He’s got a competitive spirit as well and he’s highly ambitious, rightfully so. It’s great we’ve got a guy with those ambitions within our group. It’s also great we’ve identified him and we’ve got a plan for him over the next three years and that plan starts tomorrow.”

Certainly Scotland could do with more options at tighthead, where they are still overly reliant on Glasgow’s Zander Fagerson, who is the nation’s most capped prop with 76.

Despite his tender years, Everitt believes Blyth-Lafferty has the same raw potential as some of the leading props of recent vintage.

“Obviously, there’s a prime age for a prop to come through, but there’s also guys that are exceptional in their positions,” he said. “From my experience, if you go back to South Africa, a young Thomas du Toit played as a 19-year-old against the Crusaders, which at that time was pretty much an All Blacks team, and beat them.

“Then you’ve got a young Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe that played for the Stormers at the age of 19 as well. I think that these guys are few and far between, and we see Ollie in that mould.

“There’s got to be strategy around the selection and the training he gets on a Tuesday in the scrum sessions against Boan Venter and Pierre Schoeman certainly does expedite that progress and it does give him confidence.

“So I’m really excited for the youngster. We all know that he’s got the ability to be a world-class tighthead. There’s a bit of a long road to go before he gets there. His biggest challenge is staying on course, and that’s a challenge for any youngster. It’s how level-headed you can stay and how processed you remain in trying to achieve your goal and not deviate from it, not rest on your laurels.

“Sometimes it can come sooner rather than later. He’s only going to learn being in big games. If it goes well tomorrow, it could be a run of long opportunities in the jersey.”

Although Edinburgh will face a hugely under-strength Ospreys side shorn of over 20 players either on Wales duty or unavailable through injury, Everitt envisages that Blyth-Lafferty will also be involved over the next month as they tackle French sides Toulon and Castres in the European Champions Cup and Glasgow in a festive URC double-header.

“You can’t just give a player one shot, I don’t believe in that,” he added. “We are going to look at playing him a second time and hopefully a third time and a fourth time. That’s the way he’s going to get better. Maybe at times he will get it wrong, but we need to understand he’s still learning. There’s never a good time and there’s never a bad time. I just think that now is the right time, regardless of whether there’s injuries or not.”

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Meanwhile, Everitt insists wing Duhan van der Merwe is determined to return to top form and reclaim his place in the Scotland team for the Six Nations.

The giant speedster found himself omitted for the first time in his Scotland career when Gregor Townsend paired Kyle Steyn with Darcy Graham for their two biggest games of the autumn against New Zealand and Argentina.

Van der Merwe did score two tries in Scotland’s opening autumn Test against USA and another against Tonga last weekend to nudge one clear of Graham at the top of the all-time list with his 35th Test try.

But since suffering an ankle injury in late March which saw him unable to play for 12 weeks before a comeback in the British & Irish Lions’ pre-tour warm-up Test against Argentina in Dublin, the 30-year-old has struggled to hit the peak of his powers.

“He’s obviously disappointed in the form that he’s shown,” Everitt said. “We all know where Duhan wants to be. He wants to be one of the best wingers in the world and maybe he’s fallen off a bit.

“But being the competitor that he is, he wants to get back and be the best and he’s got a string of games now where he can build some continuity.

“I think that’s what’s been lacking in his rugby over the last probably nine months, since the injury that he picked up earlier in the year. He hasn’t strung games together.

“He got thrown into the deep end for the Lions against Argentina, didn’t get as much game time as he would have liked [on tour in Australia] and then came back and played the first game of the season against Zebre away off the bench.

“Then he got injured again [a heel issue which forced him off against Benetton]. So it hasn’t been great for him, but he’s got an opportunity now over the next 10 weeks to build some momentum and get himself into top form for the Six Nations – hopefully sooner rather than later for Edinburgh Rugby too.”

While Graham and Scotland hooker Ewan Ashman are rested against the Ospreys, Van der Merwe plus two other frontline Scotland players – prop Pierre Schoeman and lock Grant Gilchrist, who captains the side – will start the match.
Everitt also revealed that Scotland centre Matt Currie, who has yet to play this season after suffering with vertigo, may be close to a comeback.

“Matt has made big improvements over the break in November,” the head coach added. said. “With that injury, we can’t have a timeline to it, but all I can say is that he has been in training and has done contact and hopefully he’s not too far away from being up for selection.”

But fellow centre Mosese Tuipulotu, recovering from surgery on a serious knee injury sustained against Connacht in May, has seen his return date moved back from late December until mid-January.