Ospreys vs Edinburgh

Kick off Friday 19:35 at the Liberty Stadium.

Going in to the first game the Ospreys have shown little form or ability in the pre season warm up games where as their Rvials this Friday seem to have turned a few heads besting Newcastle Falcons away and narrowly losing to Bath RFC

New signings played minor parts in the warm up games but I think we are all hoping for a rousing start to the season with decent quality selections.

A few signings over the summer that should excite the Edinburgh fans, John Barclay from Scarlets probably the most prominent.

He rose to fame as one of the three B’s in the Scottish backrow, has been an infallible superstar at the Scarlets, a major factor in their resurgence over the last few years.


Unfortunately Edinburgh fans will have to wait a few months for his debut. He injured his Achilles in last year’s PRO14 semi for Scarlets. He’s still only in his early thirties so plenty of game time left in him.


Edinburgh won’t be short of leaders next season with the capture of former Scotland captain Henry Pyrgos from Scottish rivals Glasgow Warriors.

After the loss of Sam Hidalgo-Clyne to Scarlets, scrum-half Pyrgos brings valuable talent as a handy goal-kicker and a shrewd master of the game.

The Scotland international will bring strength in depth to a No.9 jersey also shared between the likes of Nathan Fowles and Sean Kennedy.

Scoring 114 points in eight years at Glasgow – Pyrgos arrives with a point to prove and a determination to lift a second career Guinness PRO14 title.


After a successful two-year spell at Gloucester Rugby, Scotland international Matt Scott has returned to his first club Edinburgh.

The 27-year-old, who has 39 Scotland appearances to his name, will bring a game-breaking ability to Edinburgh’s attacking game after scoring 17 tries in 34 games for Gloucester.

Scott, who has recently returned from a three-month spell on the sidelines, should link up well with Mark Bennett of Juan Pablo Socino in midfield.

Having played just three international games since moving to England – he will be hoping to make an immediate impact and earn a return to Gregor Townsend’s international set-up. If he reaches his best form Scott could well be the best signing Edinburgh have made.

A tricky season for Ospreys last year saw them finish fifth in Conference A, missing out on European Champions Cup qualification after they were beaten 35-17 by Ulster in a play-off.

It’s been an off-season of change for the club this summer too, with Allen Clarke replacing Steve Tandy as head coach and several big names having been recruited to the Liberty Stadium.

In the latest of our series looking at key players to look out for in 2018/19, here’s three to watch from the Ospreys.

What better place to start than with the Welsh international and two-time Lions tourist, one of the biggest transfers in European rugby this summer.

One of the most high-profile players in Welsh rugby, North finally chose to join Ospreys from Northampton on a National Dual Contract after announcing that he would be returning to Wales in November 2017.



North brings undoubted star quality to an Ospreys side but most of all brings tries.

His try-scoring ability is unparalleled – North notched up 27 in 60 English Premiership matches for Northampton and currently sits third in the all-time Wales charts with 33.

The 26-year-old helped Saints to a Premiership and Challenge Cup double in his first season in Northampton and was most recently seen helping Wales to a first series in in Argentina since 1999.

North will be joined at the Liberty by compatriot and fellow established Wales player Williams.

The 27-year-old centre joins from the Scarlets – where he briefly played alongside North – after more than a decade with both club and region.

It will be a new challenge for Williams after he enjoyed huge success at Parc y Scarlets in recent years, winning the Championship in 2017 and finishing as runners-up in the competition last season.


Williams has impressive pedigree at international level and looks a canny signing as Ospreys look to fire their way up the Guinness PRO14 table.

Centre Kieron Fonotia has moved the other way, crossing the Loughor Bridge to sign for Scarlets.


Head coach Clarke and Dan Griffiths, Ospreys’ rugby general manager, have clearly concentrated on improving their front-row and have found an excellent player to do that in the sizeable shape of Tom Botha.

Signed from Conference A rivals Toyota Cheetahs, Botha has built up a reputation as being one of the strongest scrummagers in the Guinness Pro14. Unfortunately injured in the pre-season friendly Ospreys could really struggle in the scrum for the opening few games..


Read more at https://www.pro14rugby.org/2018/07/19/three-to-watch-ospreys/#bCA8w19CJzFQj1Wf.99

It's funny how things get reported on differently depending on your viewpoint!

"After the loss of Sam Hidalgo-Clyne to Scarlets"

Edinburgh didn't lose Sam H-C to Scarlets, he was considered surplus to requirements at Edinburgh and wasn't given a new contract. He was ten lucky enough to be signed by Scarlets as it was becoming a worry that he'd not be picked up by a decent club!

Aye TT I think you’re right, apparently played well pre-season should give Gareth Davies some solid competition according to reports

maestegmafia wrote:Aye TT I think you’re right, apparently played well pre-season should give Gareth Davies some solid competition according to reports

From a Scotland point of view I really hope the move to Scarlets will let/make Sam H-C kick on with his career. It stalled in the last couple of seasons and we could do with him pushing Davies all the way and getting plenty game time!

tigertattie wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Aye TT I think you’re right, apparently played well pre-season should give Gareth Davies some solid competition according to reports

From a Scotland point of view I really hope the move to Scarlets will let/make Sam H-C kick on with his career. It stalled in the last couple of seasons and we could do with him pushing Davies all the way and getting plenty game time!

From a welsh perspective it’s great to see Aled Davies move out of the shadow of Gareth Davies at the Scarlets to replace Rhys Webb. I thought Aled played well when given his opportunities at Scarlets and for Wales. Not as flashy a player as Webb or Gareth Davies but very talented and maybe more consistent.

tigertattie wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Aye TT I think you’re right, apparently played well pre-season should give Gareth Davies some solid competition according to reports

From a Scotland point of view I really hope the move to Scarlets will let/make Sam H-C kick on with his career. It stalled in the last couple of seasons and we could do with him pushing Davies all the way and getting plenty game time!

Is it sort of a similar situation to Barclay? I’m not as informed as the Scottish posters but from memory wasn’t Barclay struggling a bit for form and moved to the Scarlets and sort of reignited his career? Or was it just that he wasn’t picked for Scotland? Either way, often a move away helps a player re-evaluate and get a new spark. Hope he’s a success at Scarlets.

maestegmafia wrote:

tigertattie wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Aye TT I think you’re right, apparently played well pre-season should give Gareth Davies some solid competition according to reports

From a Scotland point of view I really hope the move to Scarlets will let/make Sam H-C kick on with his career. It stalled in the last couple of seasons and we could do with him pushing Davies all the way and getting plenty game time!

From a welsh perspective it’s great to see Aled Davies move out of the shadow of Gareth Davies at the Scarlets to replace Rhys Webb. I thought Aled played well when given his opportunities at Scarlets and for Wales. Not as flashy a player as Webb or Gareth Davies but very talented and maybe more consistent.

Aled Davies is not at all talented and only beats those two awesome scrum-halves at being consistently shocking. Just oh dear!


Ones to watch for Ospreys:
Halfbacks - possibly the worst pairing (both Davies’) in the league. Will lead to constant slow-ball, errors, and gifted points for the oppostion team.
Head coach - Ulster reject. Clueless. Fits in at the Ospreys set-up where they have a knack for wasting money on poor coaches who can’t get the best out of what is a good team year-in, year-out.
Justin Tipuric - newly appointed captain, uncertainty regarding his leadership. Poor impact sub and 2nd most overrated flanker in Wales. Can play well as a flanker but not a great showstopper, needs to remember he isn’t a back.
Lloyd Ashley - best lock in the world. Character trait = lacks character.

Harsh Mikey but I concur on most points lol. I've never been so unenthusiastic for a new season at the Ospreys. The only chink of light is what Sherratt will bring as the new backs coach but that's it. Sam Davies is still too lightweight to be our starting 10, the over reliance on AWJ will finally take its toll but I think making Tips skipper will release the burden on him.
At least the new home kit is decent..

Edinburgh are looking strong going into the new season, with a massively powerful pack and (based on the 2nd half of last season and the recent pre-season games), aggressive defence and rucking. Our backs have improved too with the signing of Pyrgos, Simon Hickey the Kiwi 10 and Matt Scott in the centre.

The challenge for Edinburgh is living up to expectation now - last season no-one expected anything from us and we took a lot of teams by surprise. The SRU have given Cockerill some money to strengthen the team so they will be expecting a return.

I think this is a game we can win but Ospreys are a strong team that have made some good signings. First game of the season is always so hard to tell too.

Not sure of the exact team Cockerill will pick as he's done a bit of rotation in the warmups, but I'd like to see something like:

1 Pierre Schoeman (signed from the Bulls, a real physical prop)
2 Stuart McInally
3 WP Nel (back from long term injury and ready to take out his frustration on some looseheads, based on his performances in pre-season)
4 Ben Toolis
5 Grant Gilchrist
6 Luke Hamilton
7 Hamish Watson
8 Bill Mata (if he can carry on his form from the second half of last season he could be a superstar of the league)

9 Henry Pyrgos
10 Jaco VDW / Simon Hickey (not sure if Hickey is fit)
11 Duhan VDM (Visser MK2? Here's hoping so!)
12 Matt Scott
13 Mark Bennett
14 Dougie Fife
15 Blair Kinghorn

Subs - Alan Dell, Ross Ford, Murray McCallum (Berghan is yet to appear), Fraser McKenzie, Jamie Ritchie, Sean Kennedy, JP Socino, Chris Dean

I would swap Dell for Schoeman (Dell could do with a start and Schoeman played Super Rugby). Schoeman can provide some bite (pun intended) when he comes on.

The 6 jersey can go to Hamilton, but if Mata goes off there are three small flankers in the back-row. Would like either Bradbury, Carmichael or Crosbie to be available for the ballast on the bench.

Happy with the rest of the 23 for Edinburgh. Amazing to look at the backs and actually think that there is talent across the board.

I wonder if the Scottish internationals will come back for this game. Kinghorn, berghan, Gilco, bradbury etc haven't been involved at all so far this preseason.

In terms of the starting 15, I think I know roughly what'll be our first choice this season, but I have no idea if they will play in this game, given the players above are arguably all first choice in their position and are still getting up to speed after getting time off after being with Scotland.

I picked Shoeman as he's started both pre-season games so Cockers must rate him. Would be happy with Dell instead (crazy to think we also have Marfo and Sutherland still to come!).

Gilchrist played in the opening game so should be fit. Not sure about Berghan in terms of fitness and I think Bradbury was carrying a niggle. Kinghorn was given an extented rest in pre-season but is fit.

Any chance we'll see young Luke Morgan in this game?

RDW_Scotland wrote:I picked Shoeman as he's started both pre-season games so Cockers must rate him. Would be happy with Dell instead (crazy to think we also have Marfo and Sutherland still to come!).

Gilchrist played in the opening game so should be fit. Not sure about Berghan in terms of fitness and I think Bradbury was carrying a niggle. Kinghorn was given an extented rest in pre-season but is fit.

My ability to watch that game really was terrible. All the Scottish lads were given an extended rest following being away, was Blair given an extended extended rest?

I think Marfo will be a bit part player this season. He came in and did well, but I think that was based upon very low expectations, which made his performances seem better than they actually were. Don't get me wrong he did well, but I reckon the others are ahead of him.

Yeah, an extended extended rest!

It's hard to tell on Marfo as he's been out injured for a long time with back problems ever since his fantastic run of form for Scotland. Hopefully his body let's him get back up to that level. He's got a lot of competition at Edinburgh now never mind Scotland (although to be fair the Glasgow props are crap so his Edinburgh competition is his Glasgow competition!)

Breadvan wrote:Harsh Mikey but I concur on most points lol. I've never been so unenthusiastic for a new season at the Ospreys. The only chink of light is what Sherratt will bring as the new backs coach but that's it. Sam Davies is still too lightweight to be our starting 10, the over reliance on AWJ will finally take its toll but I think making Tips skipper will release the burden on him.
At least the new home kit is decent..

Ospreys are run by amateurs, always have been - like most teams in Wales I guess. The team has potential but I don’t think this is the guy to take the team forward. You’ve really lost that ability to play a high tempo game since Gibbes left. A lot of teams struggled to keep up with you. What team do you expect to see?

Bookies have Ospreys as heavy favourites for the game, which makes sense I guess, but from the sound of things here it doesn't seem like you folks are as confident as the bookies are.

RDW_Scotland wrote:I picked Shoeman as he's started both pre-season games so Cockers must rate him. Would be happy with Dell instead (crazy to think we also have Marfo and Sutherland still to come!).

Gilchrist played in the opening game so should be fit. Not sure about Berghan in terms of fitness and I think Bradbury was carrying a niggle. Kinghorn was given an extented rest in pre-season but is fit.

Just checked this, as I could have sworn he wasn't involved, and he wasn't! He's doing a lot in the media today, so think he'll play but he's not been involved in any preseason games thus far.

Yeah I saw that too - my bad!

I would go with RDW's team. I would like to see Hoyland or Graham give Fife a challenge for the right wing, Fife is solid but lacks attacking flair, but otherwise it's a decent looking side.

Unfortunately high expectations and Scottish rugby don't tend to get on very well...

Edinburgh team's up

Very happy with that side, hope some of the internationals who've been rested are up to speed.

I was pretty close!

Strongest team possible really apart from no Nel (injured?) or those injured. He's going for it!

I think Si has overtaken Nel as our first choice, so makes sense he starts.

Head Coach Richard Cockerill has named four debutants in the starting XV for tomorrow night’s Guinness PRO14 opener against Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports 2.

Summer recruits Henry Pyrgos and Simon Hickey are selected at half-back, whilst recent signings Pierre Schoeman and Luke Hamilton are named at loosehead prop and blindside flanker respectively.

Elsewhere, Matt Scott - who this summer re-joined the club from Gloucester following two seasons in the English Premiership – gets the nod at inside-centre and anchors a backline featuring 101 Scotland caps.

On his selection, Cockerill, said: “We’ve named an experienced outfit, which we believe has the mentality and toughness to compete against a combative Ospreys side.

“It’s imperative that we lay down an early marker in the championship. We are prepared as we possibly can and will travel to Wales with confidence.”

Blair Kinghorn returns to action at full-back following a breakout Summer Tour in the dark blue of Scotland. The 21-year-old starts alongside Dougie Fife and last season’s top try scorer, Duhan van der Merwe.

Mark Bennett is named at outside-centre alongside the aforementioned Scott.

Club captain Stuart McInally is named at hooker and packs down alongside Schoeman and Simon Berghan - who makes his 50th appearance for the club. Locks Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis are selected in the boiler room.

Scotland star Hamish Watson is named at openside flanker and makes his first league appearance since undergoing season-ending surgery in April. Hamilton and Fijian international Bill Mata complete the back-row.



Edinburgh team to face Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in the Guinness PRO14 on Friday 31 August (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports 2



15. Blair Kinghorn (64)



14. Dougie Fife (107)

13. Mark Bennett (12)

12. Matt Scott (74)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (18)



10. Simon Hickey*

9. Henry Pyrgos*



1. Pierre Schoeman*

2. Stuart McInally (120) CAPTAIN

3. Simon Berghan (49)

4. Ben Toolis (88)

5. Grant Gilchrist (120)

6. Luke Hamilton*

7. Hamish Watson (82)

8. Bill Mata (37)



Replacements: 16. Ross Ford (179); 17. Allan Dell (44); 18. Murray McCallum (38); 19. Fraser McKenzie (100); 20. Jamie Ritchie (48); 21. Sean Kennedy (60); 22. Jaco van der Walt (17); 23. James Johnstone (18)

Cockers does not seem to be planning on taking any prisoners this season and no real qualms about chucking the internationals straight back in.

Looks very strong on paper with a lot of good players left out of the squad. Edinburgh should be a force to be reckoned with this year. Let's see if they can deliver.

EWT Spoons wrote:I think Si has overtaken Nel as our first choice, so makes sense he starts.

Berghan has but I'm surprised McCallum is on the bench. He maybe wants to keep rotating the tightheads since we only really have 3 top ones (not sure what this Italian bloke will be like). Nel will play soon I'm sure.

I'd imagine he might be happy completely resting his 1st or 2nd choice so they aren't having to travel etc to games, considering MCallum is an able deputy and 3rd choice currently. Pietro (I think that's his name) is very much backup from what I understand and I doubt we'll see much of him unless there are some major injuries.

Duplication with RDW

Good Ospreys team - very strong pack, not sure about some of the backs? Williams and North will add a lot of class though.

I'll get rid of my post then, as that just looks mad both us having the teams up.

Two very good sides and two packs with plenty of quality which fancy a scrap.

Watson and Tips at the breakdown - fantastic. 

Looking forward to it - good luck to Os fans for the season.

George Carlin wrote:Two very good sides and two packs with plenty of quality which fancy a scrap.

Watson and Tips at the breakdown - fantastic. 

Looking forward to it - good luck to Os fans for the season.

GC is right, neither side holding back on selection, this has got the making of a cracking game!

Should be a decent game. Excited about the potential in this Edinburgh midfield.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Good Ospreys team - very strong pack, not sure about some of the backs? Williams and North will add a lot of class though.

Apart from starting 9 and replacement 10 that’s a very good set of backs. I might be tempted to swap the centres around to see what Watkin can do in more space. Strong pack and replacements, but didn’t expect to see AWJ starting. I also fail to see what King offers from 8, it’s his worst position.

Definitely not a try, plus he was offside!

5 minutes in Edinburgh haven't had the ball yet.

RDW_Scotland wrote:5 minutes in Edinburgh haven't had the ball yet.

Cockers out.

10 minutes in we haven't had the ball yet!

Also, 10 minutes of Ospreys possession and no points - great defence

15 minutes....

I kinda feel like we should just give away 3 points just so we can get out our half!

I know murrayfield is quiet, but bloody hell it's silent!

North crocked already by the looks of it.

It is a game for the purists so far to be fair.

Good that we got some ball but pretty uninspiring stuff in attack - one out passes.

3 strips in contact too.

Dan Lydiate has been offside a lot

We're not getting anywhere with mauls - 22m out let's get it to the backs to set up a platform