Zebre offers Edinburgh Rugby gauge of progress as new playmaker’s influence hailed

They have started the new United Rugby Championship campaign impressively, beating Ulster and the Stormers, and look a far more exciting and durable outfit than they did last term.

A win in Italy would be another feather in the cap of Sean Everitt and his revamped coaching team but matches against Zebre have been Edinburgh’s undoing in recent years. They have won only one of their last four games against the URC’s poorest performing team. And the sole triumph was by the narrowest of margins, a 31-30 skin-of-the-teeth victory at home in April.

Edinburgh (and Glasgow) get to play two games per season against Zebre by virtue of being grouped in the URC’s ‘Scottish-Italian’ section of the league. All the other teams, with the exception of fellow Italians Benetton, only play them once.

We're not getting ahead of ourselves

Given that Zebre have finished bottom in four of the five editions of the URC (they finished second bottom in 2025) it should be an advantage to have two cracks at the league’s traditional basement dwellers but Edinburgh have conspicuously failed to make the most of this.

It’s why Edinburgh’s Paul Hill isn’t getting carried away by their good start.

“Listen, we're not getting ahead of ourselves,” said the prop. “We're looking [only] at it week to week. You know, we've had two good wins. We've shown our defensive ability, phase after phase to perform.

“Zebre are going to be a tough team. We've only won once the last four times we've played them and we've drawn one and lost twice.

“They're a team that we struggle against, as proven in the last two years. And we recognise that they will throw everything at us. They're going to have trick plays, they're going to have loads of variety in their game.

“So in terms of looking forward, we're looking at week to week at the moment. You know, we can't get ahead of ourselves. We've had good performances, but let the table take care of itself.”

Complacency question

“Complacency” is a word that has come up this week with reference to Edinburgh’s performances against Zebre but as head coach Everitt noted, “you can never be complacent against a team you’ve beaten only once in four outings over the last couple of years”.

Edinburgh’s summer makeover has all been positive so far and one of their key acquisitions during the close season was James Grayson, who was signed from Mitsubishi DynaBoars in Japan. The former England Under-20 stand-off has added poise and control to the Edinburgh backline and his influence has come as no surprise to Hill who used to play with Grayson at Northampton Saints.

James Grayson’s positive influence

“I think Jimmy's done a great job,” said Hill. “He's come in and he's very composed the whole time. I have seen him lose his rag, which is good to see as well, but he's definitely somebody who's had a positive influence on the team.

“I think with his time in Japan he has obviously grown a lot as well and his ability to remain calm under pressure is something that I think is really suiting our team.”

Zebre Parma v Edinburgh Rugby line-ups

URC round 3, Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma, Saturday, 3pm BST

Zebre Parma: Giovanni Montemauri; Mirko Belloni, Giulio Bertaccini, Damiano Mazza, Simone Gesi; Giacomo Da Re, Alessandro Fusco (capt); Sergio Pelliccioli, Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, Juan Barbotti, Matteo Canali, Leonard Krumov, Alessandro Ortombina. Samuele Locatelli, Davide Ruggeri. Replacements: Francisco Minervino, Federico Pisani, Filippo Alongi, Giacomo Ferrari, Bautista Stavile, Patricio Baronio, Tommaso Allan, Marco Zanon.

Edinburgh Rugby: Piers O’Conor; Malelili Satala, Matt Currie (co-capt), Mosese Tuipulotu, Geordie Gwynn; James Grayson, Hector Patterson; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Callum Hunter-Hill, Glen Young, Liam McConnell, Freddy Douglas, Magnus Bradbury (co-capt). Replacements: Harri Morris, Jamie Stewart, Paul Hill, Marshall Sykes, Tom Currie, Conor McAlpine, Cammy Scott, Rory McHaffie.

Referee: Adam Jones (WRU).