Duhan van der Merwe was injured playing for Edinburgh against the Dragons in late March. Image: © Craig Watson.
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DUHAN van der Merwe is out of Edinburgh’s URC quarter-final against the Bulls tomorrow, despite having travelled to Pretoria with Sean Everitt’s squad. However, he should be available for the semi-final against either the Sharks or Munster should Edinburgh get through.
Grant Gilchrist also misses the play-off match at Loftus Versfeld because of the hamstring injury that has sidelined him for the past few weeks, while his fellow-lock Glen Young did not make the trip to Pretoria after the recent birth of his child. Like Van der Merwe, who has been out of action for two months after needing surgery on an ankle injury, both second-rows could be in contention for a place in the semi-final should Edinburgh progress.
“Duhan has been back training with us here in Pretoria this week, and he’s feeling good,” head coach Everitt said after announcing his team. “However, he’s probably still a few days away from being ready to return to full match action. We’re managing his return carefully to ensure he’s fully prepared when he does step back onto the field.
“It was always going to be a tough one, you know. We brought him along. There’s a possibility of a semi-final in Durban, so bringing him along made sense.
“It’s not that he couldn’t be on the bench, it’s just that he finished his return to play yesterday and with Harry Paterson and Darcy Graham and obviously Wes Goosen in really good form it didn’t make sense to play him after just three training sessions on the field.
“We’d rather have a 100 per cent fit Duhan next week. He’s come through the week well, so physically he’s good. Obviously, just lacking a bit of match fitness. Like I say, he’ll be ready to go next week.”
Asked if Gilchrist and Young would also be ready to go next week, Everitt said: “We’re hoping so. Once again, it just depends how Gilco comes along this week. He’ll be going for another scan today just to see where he’s at with that hamstring of his. But we should certainly have Glen Young back next week.”
Everitt has made just one change to his starting line-up from Edinburgh’s last outing, the home win over Ulster that finally booked their place in the play-offs, bringing Jamie Ritchie into the back row in place of Ben Muncaster, who drops to the bench. Liam McConnell is also among the replacements on a 5-3 bench which, with Charlie Shiel and Ben Vellacott out, sees Conor McAlpine named as back-up scrum-half to Ali Price.
“It’s exciting for them,” Everitt said of McConnell and McAlpine, who have made just four appearances between them to date. “You know, sometimes you’ve got to wait the whole season to get an opportunity, and it happens to be in a quarter-final at Loftus. So it’s a great experience for them.
“This is certainly going to be a game that they’ll remember for a lifetime. They’ve worked really hard on their game and every time Conor’s played for the ‘A’ team, he’s really been a standout.
“We know Liam’s a fierce competitor and has an incredible work rate, and he’s got a competitive spirit as well. It’ll be great to see what he can do tomorrow.”
Edinburgh beat the Bulls just a few weeks ago, but that was at the Hive in the Challenge Cup, and Everitt knows that tomorrow’s opponents will be a very different proposition at home in the league. The last time his team visited Loftus, in the early rounds of the URC, they lost 22-16.
“Yeah, it’s a massive test for us. We didn’t travel well in the beginning of the URC, but we’ve hit some form of late. We played the Bulls a few weeks ago and got the win, so we’ll take a lot of confidence out of that.
“But it’s still a massive challenge at Loftus where the Bulls are very difficult to beat. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re accurate in how we execute, whether it be with the ball or without the ball. And discipline will be key.
“Yeah, we stayed in the fight at Loftus and unfortunately turned the ball over when we went over the line, and that would have probably given us the win. We know that at Loftus they are a little bit more expansive and braver in their style of play.”
Edinburgh (v the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, Saturday 12.30pm UK time): W Goosen; D Graham, M Currie, J Lang, H Paterson; R Thompson, A Price; P Schoeman, E Ashman, D Rae, M Sykes, S Skinner, J Ritchie, H Watson, M Bradbury (captain). Replacements: P Harrison, B Venter, J Sebastian, L McConnell, B Muncaster, C McAlpine, B Healy, M Bennett.
Unavailable: Emiliano Boffelli (hamstring), Connor Boyle (knee), Robert Carmichael (wrist), Dave Cherry (knee), Luke Crosbie (pec), Grant Gilchrist (hamstring), Jamie Hodgson (tricep), Paul Hill (back), Duhan van der Merwe (ankle), Matt Scott (neck), Charlie Shiel (kidney), Mosese Tuipulotu (knee), Ben Vellacott (foot), Glen Young (personal).
Bulls: W le Roux; C Moodie, D Kriel, H Vorster, S de Klerk, K Johannes, E Papier, J-H Wessels, J Grobbelaar, W Louw, C Wiese, J F van Heerden, M Coetzee, R Nortje (captain), C Hanekom. Replacements: A van der Merwe, S Matanzima, M Smith, J Kirsten, M van Staden, Z Burger, S Gans, D Williams.