Everitt has more than grudges when Edinburgh meet Sharks

Sean Everitt’s return to Durban where his Edinburgh take on the Sharks on Saturday is not the score settling exercise many make it out to be.

Everitt who vacated the Sharks’ coaching job under less than amicable circumstances before joining Edinburgh in 2023, will clash with the Sharks in Durban for the first time but he has bigger fish to fry.

“It is not about that [playing the Sharks], it is about the competition,” Everitt said. “We have six games left and every result counts. A bonus point against the Stormers would have been vital considering how tight the log is. For it is about getting to Durban and getting as many points as we can.

“That is our focus. How quickly we regroup, plan and plot for Durban where the conditions are going to be really tough is going to be important for this group. They have the ability to finish in the top four.”

Edinburgh slipped down a position to sixth but they can restore themselves to the top five this weekend should they win in Durban and the Stormers stumble at home to Ulster.

Though they did not get a log point in Cape Town, Everitt hopes their trip there was not in vain.

“We always knew the first week was going to be tough,” he said about training in the heat in Cape Town. “It is quite a long flight when you are going via Doha to get to Cape Town. We trained and prepared well on Tuesday and Wednesday. The team run went well. The preparation we did will help us going forward and it gives us the opportunity to build with the new guys coming back into the squad.”

Edinburgh was only the second team to concede more than 40 points against the Stormers this season, and Everitt needs no reminding of what needs to be sharpened up.

He lamented his team’s set piece defence, an area in which Edinburgh is usually well fortified.

“We conceded four set piece tries. That is disappointing because that is bread and butter stuff. It’s only after a few phases that fatigue sets in but we made it too easy for them.”

In the same breath however, there were pockets of promise. “It is always difficult to find positives when you lose by that margin. We did manage to stay in the game for the first 40 minutes. We weren’t able to fire a shot from a territory and possession point of view. We got into the opposition 22 twice and we scored twice. That is a positive for me,” said Everitt.

They should certainly carry more into attack this weekend. Left-wing Duhan van der Merwe will be unleashed on the Sharks. Everitt did not want to use the absence of his Scotland internationals as an excuse for what transpired against the Stormers but there is no doubt they would have packed a bigger punch.

“You are always going to miss world class players especially if you look at Duhan van der Merwe, who is up for the Six Nations player of the year. So we are going to miss those types of players but it also on other players to step up. To be fair Boan Venter has been pushing Pierre [Schoeman] any way and he scrummed admirably against Frans Malherbe, who is arguably one of the best tight heads in the world. We do miss players but we have others who are good enough to compete.”

Everitt said he was looking forward to the run to the end of the season. It has been a season of fits and starts due to the scheduling while player availability also posed challenges.

“We can’t use that as an excuse,” said the coach. “It’s not ideal, to be honest. We’d like to play week in and week out.

“We now have the chance with EPCR [European Professional Club Rugby] matches as well to string 11 weeks together.”