Of course, one result does not a season make, and given Edinburgh\u2019s inconsistency, we would be foolish simply to presume that they will kick on from here and qualify for European rugby\u2019s top-tier tournament for the second season in a row. Even so, getting into the upper half of the table does now look a lot more feasible.<\/p>\n
They have ten regular-season games still to play in the URC, six of them at the Hive, In order they are:<\/p>\n
Edinburgh got into the play-offs with 49 points last season, a point more than Scarlets, who were the eighth and final qualifiers. They currently have 17 points from eight games. So six straight wins \u2013 plus seven bonus points somewhere along the way \u2013 would equal that Scarlets tally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By no means an easy feat for a team who have only won three of their first outings, but not impossible either. The two crunch home games look likely to be the fixture with the Bulls, who are themselves in the fight for a play-off just a point behind Edinburgh, and Ulster, given that match will take place during the Six Nations, meaning a lot of first-team regulars will be unavailable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the away games, Dragons is by far the easiest on paper. Leinster (currently fifth), the Lions (seventh) and the Stormers (first) look a lot tougher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a game in hand against Ulster, who are flying at the moment,\u201d head coach Sean Everitt<\/strong> said yesterday. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got to make sure that we pick up those points when they come here to the Hive \u2013 then it puts us in a good position on the log.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut obviously, there\u2019s a long way to go, [including] a trip to South Africa. So every point we pick up from now on, before we go there, is better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Having said that, Everitt accepted that a final tally of just one point more than last season would be enough for his team to clinch a top-eight spot. \u201cFifty points would be enough. But if you look at the results on the weekend, the Irish teams are fighting it out amongst each other. The Welsh teams had a turnaround on the weekend as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s an interesting log at the moment, with the Bulls struggling and obviously the Sharks where they are as well [the Durban side are 14th]. It does make it a bit different, it does make it tighter, and that\u2019s why I say every point counts.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just looking, and only three away teams won on the weekend in the three biggest rugby leagues, which is Top 14, Premiership, as well as URC. So we\u2019re proud of the fact that we won [at Benetton]. We also know that we\u2019ve got work to do in certain areas, but there were improvements in our attack, which I\u2019m pleased about.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we did play some really good rugby, but we just weren\u2019t efficient enough close to the goal line. It\u2019s something that\u2019s been plaguing us for some time, maybe the guys just being too over-energetic in that area, not being composed enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAn example of that is Freddy Douglas\u2019 knock-on, just short of the line. We\u2019ve got to finish those opportunities off.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If the race to the play-offs in the URC is tight, Champions Cup Pool 2 is tighter still. Bath are top on six points, with the other five teams all on five. Edinburgh lie bottom on points difference, below Castres, Munster and Toulon as well as Gloucester.<\/p>\n It may well be the case that they will need to pick up something at the Rec in addition to beating Gloucester, and that is easier said than done. But Everitt\u2019s squad are set for a significant boost ahead of the latter game, with several Scotland internationals ready to return from injury.<\/p>\n Duhan van der Merwe<\/strong>, Ewan Ashman<\/strong> and Ben Muncaster<\/strong> will all be available after missing out on Saturday night\u2019s URC win at Benetton. Liam McConnell<\/strong> has also been passed fit to play \u2013 he had to go off in the 15-14 win with a head injury. And Grant Gilchrist<\/strong> could make it five full internationals coming back if he recovers from the dead leg that ruled him out of the match in Italy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting some troops back,\u201d Everitt confirmed. \u201cDuhan will be back and ready to play. Ben Muncaster will be up for selection. Ewan Ashman is available.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLiam has passed his head-injury assessments, so he\u2019s available for selection. And we\u2019re hoping that Grant will pull through. It\u2019s the best position we\u2019ve been in for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n Everitt has still got a lengthy injury list to deal with. It includes Scotland forward Dylan Richardson<\/strong> and Springboks international prop Boan Venter<\/strong>, who were both injured in last month\u2019s double-header against Glasgow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDylan\u2019s got a fractured rib, and that\u2019s four to six weeks,\u201d the coach added. \u201cBoan is recovering well from his neck injury, but he probably won\u2019t be available this week and next week.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of course, one result does not a season make, and given Edinburgh\u2019s inconsistency, we would be foolish simply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,85185,1102,4884,712,5219,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-676356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-divi","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-sean-everitt","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115844862724275940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}