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Sean Everitt claps back at 'little brother' jibe from Glasgow
By Bryn Palmer
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt insists his side will relish going to “war” with Scottish rivals Glasgow and will head to Hampden Park on Saturday looking to “beat up” their “big brother” in the first of an annual festive URC derby double-header.
The capital side have had to look enviously across the M8 in recent years as Warriors under Franco Smith have won a stunning URC title, reached a European Challenge Cup final and the last eight of the Champions Cup.
Warriors won home and away against Edinburgh in Smith’s first season – 2022-23 – but since Everitt took over in the capital, both sides have won a game apiece for the past two seasons, even if Warriors have retained the trophy on aggregate.
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That consistent success and bragging rights for the last three years led Glasgow and Scotland No.8 Jack Dempsey this week to compare facing Edinburgh to “playing up against your little brother or your big brother, depending on who you are.”
“The way we are right now, we’re the big brother,” he added. “But the thing is, as a little brother myself, as the underdog, which Edinburgh will be calling themselves, they’re going to want to come back and snatch the throne because they haven’t had it for three years now.”
Everitt admitted Edinburgh will use Dempsey’s comment as fuel as they try to banish the memory of last year’s Hampden encounter, when they were resoundingly beaten 33-14, before prevailing 10-7 in the return leg at Murrayfield.
“Sometimes little brothers beat up big brothers and we’ve done that 50 per cent of the time since I’ve been here,” Everitt noted. “They’ve won their home games, we’ve won our home games. So it’s an interesting statement, but a good one for us and a good motivator.”
With 16 of Glasgow’s match-day squad and 10 of Edinburgh’s part of Scotland’s squad during the November Tests, Everitt believes there will be plenty more verbal jostling before and during the 80 minutes on Saturday.
“I think the guys know each other pretty well and I know that there’s a lot of banter going on behind the scenes,” he said. “They stay together for six weeks at a time and sometimes longer during the Six Nations, so they do know each other extremely well.
“This day is a special day where everything is put aside and it’s pretty much war for 80 minutes. So we’re looking forward to that. There will be more chirps coming, I’m sure, and there’ll be a lot more on the field as well, but it makes for an interesting contest.”
Everitt believes his side were “too emotional” in their preparation last year which resulted in a “poor” first 40 minutes, and called on them to be “brave” when the opportunity arises on Saturday.
“We’re trying to put in the best performance possible and sometimes that [emotion] can take away your energy,” he reflected. “This week we’ve been more composed and focusing on the job at hand rather than the outcome.
“Obviously there’s been growth in this group over the last 12 months. Last year in the first 40 minutes we gave away 12 penalties. You can’t give field position in your 22 to Glasgow 12 times because they’re really good at completing and have a strong maul.
“We need to be able to put in a really good, disciplined defensive effort on the weekend. At the same time, we’ve got to be brave as well. I think last year we left numerous opportunities out there, specifically from a counter-attack point of view, where maybe we could have been a little bit braver and had a go at them. Instead we kicked to them where they were dangerous as well. So we’ve taken lessons out of that and we’re looking forward to this battle and a different outcome.”
Edinburgh’s side includes 21-year-old flanker Liam McConnell, who has been in superb form this season, and 19-year-old tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, who will make just his third senior start for the club after facing Toulon and Castres in the Champions Cup in the past fortnight.
“We know that youngsters bring a different energy,” Everitt said. “They’ve got more to compete for than just the 1872 Cup. They’re trying to compete for a place in the team, and they’re trying to establish themselves so they can play for Scotland.
“Maybe the little brothers, as Jack Dempsey talks about, the Liam McConnells, might give them a bit of a scare on Saturday.
“I think there’s a saying that you’ve got to have fire in your belly and ice on the brain. So you want to be emotional, but at the same time, you want to be composed, and you want to deliver a good performance. But you can’t deliver a good performance if your brain is always in the red, because then it’s going to be erratic and it’s going to be ill-disciplined. So I think it’s the same for both teams.”
Edinburgh are without centre James Lang, who will be out for two-to-four weeks with a shoulder injury picked up against Castres last week, but full-back Wes Goosen has recovered from a cut to his knee to start alongside wings Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe, two of seven Scotland internationals recalled to the starting XV.
Glasgow announced their side earlier in the week, making just one enforced personnel change from the XV which stunned Toulouse at Scotstoun last Saturday.
With Josh McKay hurting his hamstring in scoring a try – “It looks like it’s not such a deep tissue injury that was originally feared. Hopefully we’ll get some better news when he gets a re-scan next week,” Smith reported – Ollie Smith switches to full-back with Jamie Dobie moving to left wing and George Horne coming into the side at scrum-half, after a big contribution off the bench against Toulouse.
“George is a team player,” Smith added. “He’s a man that wants the team to win, and he will always apply himself the way we want. He’s got a specific skill-set that we used in a specific way last weekend for the right purpose. He performed exactly like we hoped.
“He’s now got a different job to do for us this week, a different plan. Hopefully, he gets that right and will progress his game. I think he’s maturing. In previous years, there were some errors around his game that he’s now ironed out. He’s very consistent and brings very good energy to us.”
LINE-UPS:
Glasgow: 15 O Smith; 14 K Steyn, 13 S McDowall, 12 S Tuipulotu, 11 J Dobie; 10 A Hastings, 9 G Horne; 1 N McBeth, 2 G Hiddleston, 3 Z Fagerson, 4 M Williamson, 5 S Cummings, 6 M Fagerson, 7 R Darge, 8 J Dempsey.
Reps: 16 S Stephen, 17 R Sutherland, 18 S Talakai, 19 A Craig, 20 G Brown, 21 A Miller, 22 B Afshar, 23 D Lancaster.
Edinburgh: 15 W Goosen; 14 D Graham, 13 M Currie, 12 P O’Conor, 11 D van der Merwe; 10 C Scott, 9 B Vellacott; 1 P Schoeman, 2 E Ashman, 3 O Blyth-Lafferty, 4 G Young, 5 G Gilchrist, 6 L McConnell, 7 D Richardson, 8 M Bradbury.
Reps: 16 H Morris, 17 B Venter, 18 P Hill, 19 C Hunter-Hill, 20 F Douglas, 21 C McAlpine, 22 R Thompson, 23 M Davidson.
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