Head coach pays tribute to Lions player who died on Friday
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt has paid tribute to South African player Hyron Andrews whose sudden death on Friday has shocked the rugby world.
Everitt worked with the forward during their time together at the Natal-based Sharks and watched his progress as a talented young second-row with Sale and then the Lions.
Andrews’ death at 31 was announced by SA Rugby. He died after a fall at the Lions team hotel in France on the eve of their Champions Cup game against La Rochelle.
“It was tragic news that we heard this morning,” said Everitt, speaking after Edinburgh’s 27-17 loss to Toulon in the European Challenge Cup at Hive Stadium. “Hyron was a great person. He arrived at the Sharks as a youngster and he grew up into a really good rugby player and was in the Boks squad quite a few times as well.
“Just incredibly sad for his family. He got married to a young lady, Maiglin, and he's got two little children as well. So really sad for a good man like Hyron.”
Edinburgh are due to host the Lions next Friday in a United Rugby Championship match and it remains to be seen if the game will go ahead.
“I'm sure we'll get news on that over the weekend,” said Everitt. “But we've got to respect the Lions at this sad time and condolences to them and their families.”
Everitt had earlier reflected on Edinburgh’s first defeat of the season and conceded they couldn’t impose their game on the French visitors for whom full-back Melvyn Jaminet scored 22 points.
“Yeah, just a disappointing performance,” said the coach, whose side top the URC after three wins in a row. “There were some aspects of the game that were strong. I thought our defence was really good tonight, to hold them out with the amount of possession that we gave them.
“We conceded 26 turnovers in the game, we didn't win the aerial battle and they slowed our ball down at the breakdown, so we couldn't get our game going.
“In saying that, you know, we were always in the game until the 70th minute. And we just couldn't quite get away on the scoreboard. We put points on the board and we didn't exit well enough or take care of the kick-off receipts that they came to us.
“But it’s still young in the competition. And like I said, there were some positives in the game overall.”
Edinburgh scored tries through Ewan Ashman and Geordie Gwynn, both converted by James Grayson who also added a penalty, but they never managed to lead against the French side who have reached the Challenge Cup final on five occasions.
Darcy Graham played his first match of the campaign after recovering earlier than expected from a torn tendon in his bicep and lasted around an hour before making way for Gwynn.
“It's his first game back and we're looking after him,” explained Everitt.
Edinburgh will return now to URC action and will not play again in the Challenge Cup until December when they take on Vannes in France. They will then play their final two Pool 3 games in the new year, against Harlequins at home and Black Lion in Tbilisi.
“I think it's a good learning curve for us, in a way, with the youngsters and the consistency,” said Everitt. “I mean, we've had three really good performances from the team [in the URC]. Unfortunately, against a big Toulon team, it was always going to be difficult.
“So there's a lot of learning that we'll take out of this going into the next three EPCR games.
“We've got time to fix what we need to fix.”