Edinburgh Rugby move closer to miracle scenario as ‘born leader’ bolsters squad in South Africa

Sean Everitt admitted his team would “need a few miracles” to make the play-offs if they don’t win in Cape Town on Saturday and it's hard to make a case for the capital side.

They have conceded 94 points in their last two games in the United Rugby Championship and are 12 points adrift of the top eight with five rounds of fixtures remaining.

Everitt has wielded the axe after last weekend’s 54-17 hammering by the Lions in Johannesburg, making nine personnel changes, three of them forced upon him by injury.

The cavalry has arrived in the shape of Grant Gilchrist, Pierre Schoeman and Darcy Graham who flew into South Africa this week and go straight into the starting side. It will be the Scotland trio’s first action since the Six Nations.

A born leader

The head coach is looking to Gilchrist - who replaces Glen Young in the second row - to take some of the weight of captain Magnus Bradbury.

“Gilcho is a born leader and obviously he helps us from a leadership point of view,” said Everitt, who was awarded a new two-year contract in January despite the club's poor league form. “He supports Maggie [Bradbury] really well in the captaincy, even though he's not wearing the captaincy armband. Pierre as well. It's great having guys coming in that weren't involved in that game against the Lions - it does give the week a different perspective.”

Last weekend’s result prompted a bout of soul-searching for Edinburgh and assistant coach Stevie Lawrie admitted his frustration at the club not being able to establish an identity. Lawrie felt there was a lack of fight in their performance against the Lions and Everitt followed that up on Friday by citing the number of missed tackles as well as lineout failings.

“When you review a game, you go and have a look at it and our lineout didn't function, we missed 30 one-on-one tackles,” said Everitt. “So, for us, it was to identify those areas and the guys certainly brought intent to training this past week.”

It’s all well and good impressing in training, of course, but Edinburgh have to deliver when it matters, against a side who are riding high in second place in the URC.

Full-back ruled out for up to five weeks

“I think we will need a few miracles if we don't get points tomorrow night, we all know that,” said Everitt on his team’s play-off prospects. “But you can't worry about the end result, you've got to worry about the process. We've prepared well this week and we're going to give it our best shot to get as many points as we can.”

The presence of Gilchrist, Graham and Schoeman should help and their inclusion sees Jack Brown and Boan Venter move to the bench, alongside Young. Ben Vellacott and Mosese Tuipulotu also drop down, with Charlie Shiel and James Lang taking their places at scrum-half and inside centre, respectively. Ewan Ashman will start at hooker for Edinburgh, with Dylan Richardson moving to openside flanker in place of Freddy Douglas.

Harry Paterson tore a quad muscle while practising kicking and could be out for up to five weeks. His place at full-back is taken by Piers O’Conor. Tighthead prop D’arcy Rae has a calf injury, opening the door for Paul Hill, and Ben Muncaster suffered a concussion against the Lions and is replaced by Liam McConnell.

Stormers v Edinburgh teams

URC round 14, DHL Stadium, Cape Town, 5pm GMT.

DHL Stormers: Warrick Gelant; Damian Willemse, Ruhan Nel (capt), Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Stefan Ungerer; Ntuthuko Mchunu, André-Hugo Venter, Sazi Sandi, Adré Smith, JD Schickerling, Paul de Villiers, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos. Replacements: JJ Kotzé, Oli Kebble, Neethling Fouché, Connor Evans, Deon Fourie, Hacjivah Dayimani, Dewaldt Duvenage, Jurie Matthee.

Edinburgh Rugby: Piers O’Conor; Darcy Graham, Matt Currie, James Lang, Malelili Satala; Ross Thompson, Charlie Shiel; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Paul Hill, Marshall Sykes, Grant Gilchrist, Liam McConnell, Dylan Richardson, Magnus Bradbury (capt). Replacements: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Boan Venter, Angus Williams, Glen Young, Freddy Douglas, Ben Vellacott, Mosese Tuipulotu, Jack Brown.

Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU).