HAVING beaten Benetton 53-8 at the DAM Health Stadium just over a month ago, Edinburgh will start this afternoon’s re-match at the Stadio Monigo in Treviso as favourites – but assistant coach Steve Lawrie insisted that the capital outfit are expecting a much stiffer challenge this time round.
He pointed out that Edinburgh are on a five-match losing streak away from home in this fixture, stretching back to October 2017, and they will be without 10 frontline internationalists who have all been rested.
“We’ve not won there for a wee while and that’s really important to remember,” cautioned Lawrie. “We have to make sure we go there and, it’s a bit of a modern cliche: 'be the best version of ourselves'. That’s what we’re focusing on this week, to make sure our approach is such.
“We take confidence from how we played at home against them last month, but if you look at how they play at home with the crowd behind them and the passion that generates, they’re a different prospect physically and emotionally. So, we’ve put more on the emotional side this week than their technical and tactical stuff.
“It’ll be a game of fine margins and we need to make sure we’re on the right side of it. We’ve had a good prep with this group, with the internationals being away. The Glasgow A game last week was excellent for us and we feel ready to go over there and do our best.” Lawrie also pointed out that this is a Scottish-Italian Shield contest, which could have implications on Edinburgh managing to qualify for next season’s Champions Cup depending on where they end up in the United Rugby Championship league table.
“These games against the Italians and Glasgow are vitally important for that,” he reasoned. “Whether you’re playing tiddlywinks or whatever it is, you want to win things. If they put a shield in front of you, you want that shield.”
The missing men for Edinburgh are: Argentinean full-back Emiliano Boffelli, in-form wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe, centre Mark Bennett, stand-off Blair Kinghorn, props Pierre Schoeman and WP Nel, second-row Grant Gilchrist, flanker and national team captain Jamie Ritchie, and Fijian No 8 Viliame Mata. Scotland squad members Hamish Watson and Dave Cherry are also unavailable through injury. Meanwhile, seven of Benetton’s starting fifteen, including six members of the pack – Gianmarco Lucchesi, Simone Ferrari, Niccolo Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Lorenzo Cannone – all started in Italy’s famous win over Australia a fortnight ago, with another three players (including two more forwards) on the bench for both that game and this one.
In short, Benetton are coming into this game close to fully loaded, which could mean some of their players feel slightly jaded after their Autumn exploits (most of these played were also involved in Italy’s 63-21 lose to South Africa last weekend), but they will be experienced and battle-hardened. “We’ve been lucky to be able to select a fairly settled packs while the international guys were away,” countered Lawrie. “Marshall Sykes and Jamie Hodgson in the second-row are mainstays in the team now, with Glen Young coming off the bench like he did twice for Scotland during the Autumn.
“And Stu McInally is back at hooker having had his wee jaunt with the Baa-Baas. He’s sobered up now, which is good. He’s back and raring to go.
“Gus Williams at tight-head prop has had a couple of big impacts off the bench, certainly against Cardiff when he won some key scrum penalties, so there is enough in that pack for us to be confident in our ability to impose ourselves out there.”
Lawrie also defended Edinburgh’s recent decision to recruit 33-year-old English journeyman Tom Cruse as hooker cover while Cherry and Adam McBurney are out injured, instead of promoting from the academy and/or Super6. “Looking at the nature of being in the Heineken Cup, we want to bring in somebody who complements that, and also brings in a different knowledge from the Premiership,” he said. “We had the likes of Corey Tait and Jerry Blyth-Lafferty from Boroughmuir Bears in training with us last week, and they played in that A game, so we recognise that they are very much the future.
“I also think it is a statement that Patrick Harrison is on the bench this weekend despite Tom coming in, which shows you that we see the importance of developing guys.”
Edinburgh (v Benetton Rugby at Stadio Monigo, Saturday 1pm BST/2pm local): H Immelman; D Hoyland, M Currie, J Lang, W Goosen; C Savala, H Pyrgos; B Venter, S McInally, A Williams, M Sykes, J Hodgson, M Haining, L Crosbie, B Muncaster. Replacements: P Harrison, J Jack, L Atalifo, G Young, C Boyle, B Vellacott, J van der Walt, C Dean.
Benetton: R Smith; M Watson, I Brex, M Zanon, M, Minozzi; T Albornoz, D Duvenage©; N Tetaz, G Lucchesi, S Ferrari, N Cannone, F Ruzza, S Negri, M Zuliani, L Cannone. Replacements: G Nicotera, I Nemer, T Pasquali, S Scrafton, G Pettinelli, A Garbisi, J Umaga, T Menoncello.
