'Best we can': Edinburgh Rugby address Duhan van der Merwe future amid La Rochelle link

Everitt desperate to keep flying winger in capital beyond this season

Edinburgh Rugby coach Sean Everitt said they hope to keep Duhan van der Merwe at the club after the Scotland winger was linked with a move to France.

La Rochelle have been credited with an interest in the 29-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season. Van der Merwe, who broke Scotland’s all time try-scoring record in the summer, is in his second spell at Edinburgh after rejoining the club in 2022 from Worcester Warriors following the latter’s financial collapse. He has business interests in Edinburgh, having started a whisky company with team-mate Pierre Schoeman.

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“We want to keep Duhan in Scotland if we can,” said Everitt, after his Edinburgh team had beaten the Stormers 38-7 at Hive Stadium for their first win of the season. “He's got a business here in Scotland. We desperately do want to keep him here, so we'll do the best we can. We're in the process of contracting for season 2025-2026 at the moment. We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.”

Van der Merwe played in France earlier in his career but his time at Montpellier was hindered by a hip injury and it was only when he joined Edinburgh for the first time in 2017 that his senior career took off. The wages on offer in the Top 14 are the highest in Europe and Lyon and Bayonne have also been credited with an interest in the winger.

Edinburgh's Duhan van der Merwe in action against the Stormers.Edinburgh's Duhan van der Merwe in action against the Stormers.
Edinburgh's Duhan van der Merwe in action against the Stormers. | SNS Group

Everitt, meanwhile, praised his players for their performance against the Stormers after what he called “a difficult week”. Edinburgh lost their opening three games of the United Rugby Championship season, to Leinster, the Bulls and the Lions. The latter scored seven first-half tries against them last weekend - a league record - but Edinburgh responded in the right manner, scoring five tries in the bonus point win over the Stormers.

“I'm just so happy for the boys because over the last three weeks there has been no lack of effort, maybe a lack of accuracy in our execution and what we're trying to achieve,” said Everitt. “We also know that our attack will take a bit of time to grow and with that will come teething problems.

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“But for us it was to understand that there were rugby reasons why we lost the game - it was in our hands and it was controllable. This week the focus was to stick to strategy, do what worked for us last year, build the pressure on the opposition and be relentless in that regard. That’s what we did and we got our reward for that.”

Three young Scottish players played particularly well in front of the watching Gregor Townsend who will name his squad for the autumn internationals later this month. Ben Muncaster, who scored two tries, Paddy Harrison, who got one, and Ross Thompson, who kicked 11 points, all impressed.

“Paddy was outstanding as well as Ben Munchester who put in another outstanding performance tonight, not only defensively but carrying the ball as well,” said Everitt. “And he got through a tremendous amount of work. So those two youngsters certainly brought energy to the team.

“Ross was calm, understood what we wanted from him from a game management point of view. Not only on attack was he good in game management, his defence was outstanding as well.”

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