URC: Edinburgh set to welcome back Scotland squad members for Munster trip
Yesterday at 05:00 PM
SEAN Everitt will have a larger playing group to select from for Edinburgh’s URC game at Munster on Friday compared to their previous match against Zebre, with back-row forwards Ben Muncaster and Magnus Bradbury set to be available again along with a number of Scotland squad members.
However, Emiliano Boffelli will sit out the trip to Cork because of a hamstring strain after only making his comeback from a long-term injury in the defeat by the Italians 10 days ago. And almost all of the internationals who were involved in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup match will also be unavailable – as will Darcy Graham, who missed the defeat by England after being concussed against Ireland.
Head coach Everitt hopes he will be able to select second-row Sam Skinner – a second-half substitute in the 16-15 loss in London – along with back-row Luke Crosbie, hooker Paddy Harrison, prop D'arcy Rae, lock Marshall Sykes, scrum-half Ali Price and wing Ross McCann. And he will also have Bradbury back from suspension after the forward completed a World Rugby coaching-intervention course, while Muncaster should be cleared after missing the Zebre match with concussion.
"Fortunately, there weren’t too many injuries on the weekend, so we’re hoping that they are going to become available," Everitt said earlier today [Monday] of the national squad contingent. "Sam Skinner was involved in the weekend, but we're hoping to have him.
“Magnus is available. He’s cleared his return to play with regards to tackle school, so we welcome him back on Friday. And Ben will be back from his concussion. He’s on his final return to play today, and he should be up for selection tomorrow.
"Darcy is around and he trained with the backs this morning, but he’s not available for selection. He’s been retained [by Scotland]. Hopefully he’ll be up for selection by Scotland next week.”
Argentina international Boffelli’s outing against Zebre was his first match in 10 months after a chronic back condition required surgery, and he came off early in the second half after feeling his muscles tightening up. However, Everitt explained that his omission from the Munster match is precautionary.
"Boffelli has got a hamstring strain,” he said. “He won’t be available this weekend – we’ve got to be careful how we manage him. With another player, we could have pushed them through, but we’ve got to be careful with him."
The 22-17 loss to Zebre led to renewed speculation about Everitt’s ability to get the best out of his squad, and to suggestions that he would be under increasing pressure to improve results from the Scottish Rugby hierarchy, including performance director David Nucifora. However, the coach insisted that was not the case.
“No, not at all. If anything, they’ve given me their full support.
“We’re always under pressure. That’s the beauty of coaching, because the pressure is to get it right – for us as individuals as well. That’s what we’re aiming to achieve this weekend.
“We’re excited for the challenge. We were obviously disappointed at what happened a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve got to look ahead now and this is a great opportunity for us to turn things around.”
Asked where things had gone wrong against a Zebre side who held out for a win despite being down to 13 men in the dying minutes, Everitt continued: “Unfortunately, we didn’t play with more movement in the game. We knew where the space was in our prep, but we didn’t execute well enough. Sometimes that happens in rugby.
“We didn’t get our flow going in our attack. I thought they did well to disrupt us at the breakdown and to attack while we needed rhythm.
“In saying all that, we had an opportunity at the end of the game, and unfortunately we didn’t take it. That for me was disappointing, but we’ve got to move on from there. It’s a long competition and we’re by no means out of it.
“We’ve got to focus on every game now. We all know we can do better.
“People look at Zebre and they say they’re the minnows of the URC. They’re definitely not. If you look at the results and where they are on the log, they’re also in contention for top eight.”
Zebre remain second bottom in the 16-team league, but with seven games to go they are the same number of points out of the play-off places. Edinburgh are ninth, just two behind eighth-placed Scarlets.
The post URC: Edinburgh set to welcome back Scotland squad members for Munster trip appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.
