Edinburgh lose 3 Scotland internationals ahead of Saracens clash
Edinburgh will be without the injured Jamie Ritchie, Darcy Graham and Blair Kinghorn for their European Challenge Cup clash with Saracens in the Scottish capital.
Edinburgh had previously confirmed that Viliame Mata and Damien Hoyland faced lay-offs with knee injuries.
Charlie Savala comes in at stand-off after Kinghorn was ruled out with a head injury, while Jaco van der Walt makes a timely return from injury to be named among the replacements.
Mark Bennett, Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally, WP Nel and Marshall Sykes all return to the starting line-up.
Head coach Mike Blair said: “This is a real challenge for the club. Saracens are one of the best teams in Europe and it will give us a really good measure of where we’re at.
“We’ve been really pleased with some of things we’ve been able to achieve in the URC so far, but this week has a different feel to it and we’re just looking forward to the challenge.”
EDINBURGH TEAM:
15. Emiliano Boffelli
14. Jack Blain (
13. Mark Bennett
12. James Lang
11. Ramiro Moyano
10. Charlie Savala
9. Ben Vellacott
1. Pierre Schoeman
2. Stuart McInally
3. WP Nel
4. Marshall Sykes
5. Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN
6. Luke Crosbie
7. Hamish Watson
8. Nick Haining
Replacements
16. Dave Cherry
17. Boan Venter
18. Lee-Roy Atalifo
19. Jamie Hodgson
20. Magnus Bradbury
21. Henry Pyrgos
22. Jaco van der Walt
23. Cammy Hutchison
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Yes I was surprised at how close the pen count was - the spread between best and worst being just 2. The number of yellow cards though will surely be something the Boks will look to address
Go to commentsBriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol! Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistol!
It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.
It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.
Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.
Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!
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