How Edinburgh Rugby can finish weekend in URC play-offs - but task ahead is not easy

Champions Munster arrive at Hive to lay down big challenge to capital men

With just two rounds of the regular season to go, Edinburgh’s URC campaign could hardly be more finely balanced. If they beat Munster on Friday evening and Connacht and the Lions fail to win their games on Saturday, Sean Everitt’s team, currently seventh, will be in the play-offs. Simple as that.

Conversely, if they lose to the champions at the Hive, they may finish the weekend as low as tenth. Defeat by a Munster team who have won their last seven league games would not in itself be terminal for Edinburgh, but it could mean their fate was no longer in their own hands: they would then go into their last regular-season match at Benetton on 1 June both needing a win and possibly relying on results elsewhere to go their way.

Clearly, the ideal for any team is to qualify for the top eight with something to spare, rather than face a desperate scramble to get there. After all, the play-offs are not an end in themselves, but a chance to win silverware. Edinburgh have at least hit a decent run of form in recent weeks, beating the Scarlets, Cardiff and Zebre in their last three outings. But seeing off such lowly opposition is one thing: getting the better of Munster is an altogether tougher task, as Everitt acknowledged on Thursday after announcing his team.

Pierre Schoeman (L) and Viliame Mata (R) during an Edinburgh rugby training session at Hive.

“To beat a quality team like Munster, we’ve got to be on song for 80 [minutes],” the head coach said. “We’re playing against the champions, who are in form at the moment. We know that we need to win to keep our destiny in our own hands. We set ourselves goals: we said we wanted to win seven games at home, and we’ve done that, but seven games at home now is not going to be enough. If we can get eight games at home and we can get an extra win away, then we should be sitting high up in the top eight – by which I mean fifth, sixth or seventh.”

Everitt was referring to his original calculation that seven home wins and five on the road would be enough to get into the play-offs. That would normally be the case, but it has not quite panned out that way this time, largely because his team have picked up an unusually small number of bonus points – just three for tries and one for a narrow defeat. Adding to that meagre tally this evening could come in useful, but realistically Edinburgh will simply be happy to end up on the winning side.

Everitt has made just one change to his starting 15, naming Ben Vellacott at scrum-half instead of Ali Price, who drops to the bench. “Ben has been in good form coming off the bench, and we’re looking at him to bring that spark from the start of the game,” the coach explained. No 8 Bill Mata and tighthead prop WP Nel will be playing their last home games for Edinburgh before joining Bristol Bears and retiring respectively. “It will be a special occasion for guys like Bill and WP, who have been tremendous servants to the club for a long time,” Everitt added. “I know our squad will be going all out to ensure it’s a positive night.”

Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony and fly-half Joey Carbery have both been ruled out of the Munster line-up because of injury, but Jack O’Donoghue make his 200th appearance for the province. In doing so, the Waterford man will become the youngest player to reach 200 appearances for Munster and also becomes the 14th player to achieve this landmark.

Sean Everitt is calling for a complete 80-minute performance from Edinburgh.

“They're like mini finals every week now, with the league being so tight, and the Sharks being alive in Europe as well, to potentially gain that European slot,” admitted Munster forward coach Andi Kyriacou. “That's intensified things more, if it could be possible. We're pretty calm and measured about it, we've not really looked past the game we have in front of us, and this week is Edinburgh and we know the threats they've got and what they're going to come with.

“It's a big challenge going over there and performing, so we've addressed a few bits that we needed to sort out from Connacht, and we're looking forward to the challenge that we're going to face this weekend on Friday night.”