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Edinburgh pull out the big guns for coach's return to the Sharks

By PA
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 16: Edinburgh's Duhan Van Der Merwe celebrates after scoring a try during the EPCR Challenge Cup match between Edinburgh Rugby and Castres Olympique at DAM Health Stadium on December 16, 2023 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Edinburgh welcome Scotland internationals Duhan Van Der Merwe, Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman and Jamie Ritchie back into their starting XV for Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash with Sharks in Durban.

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The quartet sat out the first match of their double-header in South Africa against Stormers last weekend as they were rested following their involvement in the Six Nations.

Head coach Sean Everitt has made five changes in total to the team that lost 43-21 in Cape Town, with centre Chris Dean also added to the line-up.

“It’s great to welcome back some more of our Scotland internationalists,” Everitt told the Edinburgh website.

“Guys like Jamie and Pierre bring a lot of quality and experience to the pack, and they’ll be raring to go after getting a bit of time off after the Six Nations.”

Veteran prop WP Nel retains his place in the front row after announcing his intention to retire at the end of the season.

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Everitt, whose side are sixth in the URC table, added: “We’ve spoken this week about remaining resilient and sticking to our game plan, while staying strong mentally when coming under pressure.

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“Sharks are strong at home but we’re ready for the challenge and look forward to the opportunity of representing our city and fans while here on South African soil.”

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Fixture
United Rugby Championship
Sharks
23 - 13
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Edinburgh
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f
fl 46 minutes ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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