Sean Everitt reveals bold URC aim for Edinburgh Rugby after Challenge Cup exit

Coach sets top-four target in bid to salvage season

Edinburgh's Jake Henry on the attack against Sharks full-back Aphelele Fassi during the EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final at Kings Park, Durban. (Photo: Steve Haag Sports/INPHO/Shutterstock)

Edinburgh have five games to save their season and head coach Sean Everitt hopes his squad can learn the lessons from their Challenge Cup defeat in South Africa and use them as motivation for a top-four finish in the United Rugby Championship.

It’s a bold aim given that they currently lie ninth but Everitt has his sights set higher than merely a place in the top eight which would guarantee their participation in the play-offs. The coach knows they need to be in the top four to earn a home tie and expects his team to bounce back from the 36-30 loss to the Sharks which ended their Challenge Cup campaign at the quarter-final stage.

A 12,500-mile round trip to Durban didn't produce the result Edinburgh wanted and they must now rest and recuperate before returning to URC action on Saturday night. Their next three games are against sides below them in the table and, realistically, they will need to beat Scarlets (home), Cardiff (away) and Zebre (home) to stand a chance of meeting their top-four goal. Their final two regular season games are against Munster (home) and Benetton (away).

Everitt saw his side match the Sharks during the first half at Kings Park, and they went in at the turn 16-14 ahead, but the hosts dominated after the break, gaining the upper hand in the scrum where Springbok World Cup winners Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch ruled the roost. Edinburgh lost the penalty count 8-1 in the second half and it was a fatal blow to their hopes of a first European semi-final since 2015.

“We’ve got to keep working on our set piece,” said Everitt when asked about the spiralling penalty count. “We know in the URC we’ve got some tough battles up front coming our way. We certainly have the personnel and we haven’t struggled in the URC up front, we’ve got the ascendancy in most of our games.

“You look at guys like Ewan Ashman, WP [Nel] and Pierre Schoeman, Grant [Gilchrist] and Sam Skinner and that’s a Scottish [international] tight five. We need to stick to our guns. I’m not just blaming the set piece for the penalties, when you come under the pump and the other team has the momentum on you and the offside calls don’t go your way so I wouldn’t say it’s an individual thing but we collectively need to be better at set-piece time.”

A try from Schoeman and three penalties and a conversion from Ben Healy gave Edinburgh the lead against a Sharks side for whom Lukhanyo Am and James Venter scored first-half converted tries. The home team accumulated 19 unanswered points after the break through a try by Bongi Mbonambi and four penalties and a conversion from Siya Masuku. It put the game beyond Edinburgh but they at least finished with a flourish thanks to late tries from Hamish Watson and David Cherry.

“We need to take the positives out of this game into the URC,” said Everitt. “We’ve got five URC games left and we’ve got a very good opportunity to finish in the top four which is important to give you a home quarter-final and I think the guys are really keen to do as well as they can in that competition.”