Club expect Lions match to go ahead despite tragic death of Hyron Andrews
Duhan van der Merwe and Marshall Sykes are on track to return to the Edinburgh Rugby squad for Friday’s home match against the Lions in the United Rugby Championship.
The Scotland pair have not played this season due to injury but both are training fully and are likely to be available for selection as the club look to get back to winning ways.
Edinburgh won their opening three games of the new URC campaign but slipped to their first defeat of the season last week when they lost to Toulon at Hive Stadium in the European Challenge Cup.
The URC resumes this week and prolific winger van der Merwe is available again after recovering from ankle and foot issues and so too is second-row forward Sykes who underwent major shoulder surgery in the close season.
Tim Sampson, the Edinburgh attack coach, said the return of players from injury would inject fresh energy.
Edinburgh top of the URC standings
“We’re now four weeks on the bounce, coming into our fifth game in a row, you do need that little bit of a freshen-up,” said Sampson. “There's some experience now that's coming back in, filtering in, which is ideal.”
Edinburgh are top of the URC standings after the wins over Ulster, the Stormers and Zebre and are looking to stay there by beating the Johannesburg-based Lions and then Benetton away in their final two matches before the international break.
The club expect the game with the Lions to go ahead despite the sudden death of the South African team’s forward, Hyron Andrews.
Andrews, 31, was found unresponsive in a shower in the team's hotel in France on Friday, a day before their European Champions Cup match against La Rochelle. An investigation had been opened to determine the cause of death.
Tragic circumstances
Despite the tragic circumstances, the Lions played the match against La Rochelle on Saturday, losing 31-14, and the indications are that the game with Edinburgh will also take place.
“We've heard no different,” said Sampson. “The game's going ahead as expected.
“On behalf of the club, we send our thoughts to the Lions Rugby Club and especially Hyron's family. It's a sad moment for the game.”
Sampson said he was moved by the Lions’ dignified response to the tragedy and also by other events over the weekend which saw tributes paid to former Munster captain and coach Anthony Foley on the 10th anniversary of his death and the support shown by the All Blacks to the former Australia international Nathan Charles who was recently diagnosed with MND.
‘Rugby's a beautiful game’
“Rugby's a beautiful game, isn't it?” said Sampson. “To see the response from the Lions. I saw the Lions coach pre-game, interviewed, and he said at the end of the day, it's just a game. Win or lose, it didn't really matter to them.
“I watched the Wallabies against the All Blacks, and a friend of mine, Nathan Charles, recently came out suffering and fighting MND. Just to see what went on pre-game and then the All Blacks doing a haka post-game for Nathan.
“And then I watched the Munster game. A great acknowledgement to Anthony Foley.
“It's beautiful. It's the beauty of the game. To both teams' credit there on Saturday, La Rochelle and the Lions, it was a nice touching moment in a really difficult situation.”
Sean Everitt has reached out to offer support
“I think Sean Everitt knows some of the staff there and he's reached out to offer our support in any way we can,” added Sampson.
Sampson, who joined the Edinburgh coaching staff in the summer from Super Rugby Pacific side Fijian Drua, has been impressed by the club’s young players in particular and has backed them to bounce back from their first defeat of the season.
“We had a pretty thorough review around our game, but we let ourselves down in the simple basics area, skill areas of the game,” said the Australian.
“We don't want too many bad results, but the young squad have been performing exceptionally well, undefeated in the URC and sitting top of the table.
“They're the guys that have carried us through those early rounds. We have absolute faith in them, but it was certainly a level up against a big powerhouse like Toulon on the weekend. They really dominated in some areas of the game.”
Edinburgh were second best at the breakdown and were turned over around 26 times by Everitt’s estimation. They also struggled in the lineout.
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