Three Scotland internationals among 9 changes for Edinburgh

Edinburgh welcome back three Scotland internationals to their side among nine changes – one positional – for Saturday’s must-win URC mission against second-placed Stormers in Cape Town.

Last week’s 54-17 thumping by the Lions in Johannesburg was the capital side’s fourth defeat in their last five league games, leaving their hopes of qualifying for the play-offs hanging by a thread.

Sean Everitt’s side are now languishing in 13th place, 12 points behind the Bulls in eighth, with just five games of the regular season left.

Although three of their last four matches are at home, a second defeat of their South African tour would make their play-off target all but impossible.

Scotland wing Darcy Graham, lock Grant Gilchrist and prop Pierre Schoeman all return to the starting XV on their arrival in South Africa after missing the Lions game following their involvement in Scotland’s Six Nations campaign.

“They are seasoned professionals and international rugby players, and they have brought a lot of energy this week,” said Everitt.

“We know what Darcy can be like at training and he certainly brought that. Gilchrist was really keen to get stuck in on Tuesday at our physical session and Pierre Schoeman is just an energy bunny as normal, so it’s been good to have them in. They weren’t involved on Saturday so they did bring a different perspective to the week.”

Another Scotland international, hooker Ewan Ashman, who featured as a replacement in Johannesburg, is also back from the start with the versatile Dylan Richardson switching from the No.2 jersey to openside flanker, where he has previously started seven games for the club this season. Freddy Douglas moves to the bench as a result.

Tighthead prop Paul Hill and blindside flanker Liam McConnell are also restored to the pack in place of the injured D’arcy Rae and the concussed Ben Muncaster.

Other changes to the backline see fit-again James Lang return at centre with Piers O’Conor starting at full-back after Harry Paterson picked up a quad injury in training, joining Wes Goosen and Duhan van der Merwe among 12 players on the sidelines.

Scrum-half Charlie Shiel is handed only his third start of the season, and first since late October, with Ben Vellacott on the bench.

“We know it will be a tough challenge at DHL Stadium, it’s a place where Edinburgh haven’t won before, but we’ve had a good training week and are in a good place to get a special result,” Everitt added.

“Last week our line-out didn’t function and we missed 30 one-on-one tackles. So we had to fix those areas and the guys certainly brought intent to training this past week. It’s probably some of the best preparation we’ve had.

“The Scotland guys being back is obviously a boost, but we’ll need everyone at the top of their game to turn over the Stormers on their own patch.”

Edinburgh: 15. Piers O’Conor; 14. Darcy Graham, 13. Matt Currie, 12. James Lang, 11. Malelili Satala; 10. Ross Thompson, 9. Charlie Shiel; 1. Pierre Schoeman, 2. Ewan Ashman, 3. Paul Hill, 4. Marshall Sykes, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Liam McConnell, 7. Dylan Richardson, 8. Magnus Bradbury (capt).

Replacements: 16. Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, 17. Boan Venter, 18. Angus Williams, 19. Glen Young, 20. Freddy Douglas, 21. Ben Vellacott, 22. Mosese Tuipulotu, 23. Jack Brown.