Gilchrist and Dylan Richardson both miss out with hand injuries, while neither Tuipulotu nor Liam McConnell were considered due to what Everitt cryptically described as “not meeting selection criteria” but was reluctant to put any more meat on the bones beyond confirming it wasn’t a disciplinary matter. Edinburgh have done well to restore a degree of optimism around the club in recent weeks, both with the volume of player recruitment and retention but also their desire to keep plugging away in relatively meaningless games. A fourth win on the spin would help keep that going over a long summer.
“We’re really excited about tomorrow night and what it can bring,” said Everitt. “We’re expecting a full house at Hive stadium as well. It just shows how loyal our supporters have been to us. Our goal over this last block of four games is that we win all four. We’ve got three out of three and we’re on an upward curve. As we know, we haven’t won three games in a row for two years. So, making it four in a row will be pretty special and a good farewell to some of the players that have served the club well over the years.
“I look at the team and the progress that we’ve made over the last couple of years. I think you would have noticed that the squad has transitioned somewhat. We’ve had some good players coming through.Last year, we were fortunate enough to qualify for the Champions Cup for the first time in many years. We’ve made the last 16 this year. So, there’s a lot of achievements that have been done. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes in the transition process and building towards a sustainable and successful future for Edinburgh Rugby and certainly something which will benefit Scottish rugby in the future.”
The players and Everitt will head off for a fairly lengthy break after the final match before returning with renewed focus for the season ahead.
Everitt added: “We’ll finish off our season as we normally do with player reviews etc. The players will then go on a break. They’ll be doing some work in the off-season while they’re away and that will be monitored. And we’re looking for a rejuvenated and energised team coming back and working incredibly hard so that we can hit the ground running next year. I think the first block of the URC this year, we were probably a tad unlucky.
“But you create your own luck in losing those games by one point or two. If we can turn that around and we had got those results, it might have looked a little bit different for us now. So that will be the motivation, that we get a really good fast start in the URC going forward.”
Edinburgh (versus Connacht at Hive Stadium on Friday, kick-off 7.45pm): H Paterson; D Graham, P O’Conor, F Thomson, D van der Merwe; R Thompson, H Patterson; P Schoeman, E Ashman, O Blyth-Lafferty, M Sykes, G Young, T Dodd, F Douglas, T Currie. Replacements: J Blyth-Lafferty, B Venter, P Hill, C Hunter-Hill, E McVie, T Currie, C Shiel, J Brown
Unavailable: Charlie McCaig (knee), Rhys Litterick (achilles), Rob Carmichael (wrist), Luke Crosbie (hamstring), Sam Skinner (hamstring), Paddy Harrison (back), Wes Goosen (hand), Matt Currie (hamstring), Mikey Jones (bicep), Ben Muncaster (ankle), James Lang (ankle), D’arcy Rae (calf), Ben Vellacott (shoulder), Grant Gilchrist (finger), Dylan Richardson (hand)