Edinburgh v Dragons

First topic message reminder :

Edinburgh Rugby welcome back several Scotland internationalists to their squad for tomorrow night’s Guinness PRO14 match against Dragons at BT Murrayfield (Friday 8 November, kick-off 7.35pm).

Scotland stars John Barclay and Ben Toolis are both named in the starting XV, while Simon Berghan, Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie are all selected among the replacements.

Winger Duhan van der Merwe - who grabbed a hat-trick on his last outing – is recalled after missing last weekend’s defeat to Benetton, as stand-off Simon Hickey returns to the starting line-up for the second consecutive home fixture.


Ahead of the match, Head Coach Richard Cockerill, said: “While we were obviously disappointed at the Benetton loss, it works both ways.

“We’re never as bad as we think, but we also certainly weren’t as good as we thought from the Scarlets game the previous week.

“We have had a good review this week and we have made sure there’s no misunderstanding around parts of our game where we need to get better.

“We want a good win tomorrow night and we’re looking forward to being back in front of our home support at BT Murrayfield. With five points, we would be starting to get ourselves into the play-off mix, if not cemented in the mix.”

The inclusion of Van der Merwe on the wing is the only alteration to an otherwise unchanged back-three as Blair Kinghorn and Fijian international Eroni Sau retain their place in the starting line-up.

Outside centre Mark Bennett – who has ran in four tries at BT Murrayfield so far this season – is once again paired with Matt Scott in midfield, while scrum-half Henry Pyrgos links up with Hickey at half-back.

Loosehead prop, Pierre Schoeman, returns to the front-row alongside hooker and compatriot Mike Willemse and Italian international, Pietro Ceccarelli.


Lock, Toolis – who makes his first appearance of the season – packs down alongside Lewis Carmichael in the second row, with a back-row trio of Barclay, Luke Crosbie – a try-scorer against Benetton – and Magnus Bradbury forming the remainder of the pack.



Edinburgh Rugby team to face Dragons at BT Murrayfield in the Guinness PRO14
Friday 8 November (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports




15. Blair Kinghorn (79)



14. Eroni Sau (2)

13. Mark Bennett (25)

12. Matt Scott (86)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (45)

10. Simon Hickey (22)



9. Henry Pyrgos (26) CAPTAIN



1. Pierre Schoeman (28)

2. Mike Willemse (5)

3. Pietro Ceccarelli (15)

4. Lewis Carmichael (36)

5. Ben Toolis (110)

6. John Barclay (5)

7. Luke Crosbie (31)

8. Magnus Bradbury (67)



Replacements: 16. Cameron Fenton (15) 17. Rory Sutherland (75) 18. Simon Berghan (67) 19. Grant Gilchrist (137) 20. Jamie Ritchie. (62) 21 Charlie Shiel (10) 22. Jaco van der Walt (44) 23. George Taylor (9)

Unavailable due to injury: David Cherry, Murray Douglas, Fraser McKenzie, Nick Haining, Darcy Graham, Darryl Marfo, Hamish Watson, Chris Dean, Ruan Steenkamp, Nic Groom




Dragons (v Edinburgh Rugby): Jordan Williams, Owen Jenkins, Adam Warren, Jack Dixon, Ashton Hewitt, Sam Davies, Rhodri Williams (c); Brok Harris, Richard Hibbard, Leon Brown, Joe Davies, Matthew Screech, Huw Taylor, Taine Basham, Harrison Keddie

Replacements: Ellis Shipp, Josh Reynolds, Lloyd Fairbrother, Max Williams, James Benjamin, Luke Baldwin, Arwel Robson, Tyler Morgan

Edinburgh 10-0 HT

A bruising old first half for the Drags, will that take its toll in the second half?

RDW wrote:Not the right decision to go for goal - the ref was surely thinking a yellow for next penalty. That's all wasted now and back to square one in the ref's mind no doubt.

Strange call.

Don't know about that. Drags well down on the penalty count, even Clancy will have noticed that!

Odd half really. We're 10 up, they've missed 6 points and I'm disappointed. I still feel Pyrgos is too slow, and the backs haven't had the accuracy. I'm certain we can be much better.

BigGee wrote:

RDW wrote:Not the right decision to go for goal - the ref was surely thinking a yellow for next penalty. That's all wasted now and back to square one in the ref's mind no doubt.

Strange call.

Don't know about that. Drags well down on the penalty count, even Clancy will have noticed that!

They had given away 3 penalties on their own line leading up to it- surely yellow card territory.

Forward pass unfortunately

What a line - shame it was forward! Again timing just not quite there.

So many forward passes off set piece moves...

Pyrgos is so so slow!!

Never a take out

Nonsense penalty

This could be trouble...

Clancy is a complete joke, he does not need to get out of the way

It is impressive that we have managed the first yellow card!!

No but he’s not meant to get in his way either, which he clearly did despite your Scottish commentators POV. I don’t think it’s a yellow though. Silly Clancy.

Don't think Cockerill's opinion of pro 14 refs will improve after tonight!

mikey_dragon wrote:No but he’s not meant to get in his way either, which he clearly did despite your Scottish commentators POV. I don’t think it’s a yellow though. Silly Clancy.

To be fair the Welsh commentator agreed with the Scottish one!

mikey_dragon wrote:No but he’s not meant to get in his way either, which he clearly did despite your Scottish commentators POV. I don’t think it’s a yellow though. Silly Clancy.

The Welsh guy agreed with them

Shocking call on obstruction, this is another reason why a game can never flow with Clancy in the middle.

It feels like Clancy is now overcompensating. Joke of a ref.

This has not been a good game

There's the yellow

A well earned yellow!!

Oh come on another shocking yellow

The penalty count catches up with the Drags and the BS walks for 10

Again why points? We need the BP win!

13-0 Edinburgh, both sides on 14 men

Ritchie is warming up. Hopefully some class!

Great try by the Drags, straight through the middle

Nice try. Finally some class in the backs. Wrong team.

Nice try

Forward again!!!!!

Another forward pass from Edinburgh, very sloppy

Edinburgh's accuracy has been abysmal

'As tough as Woodpeckers lips' that could have come from his Grandfather!

Kinghorne got away with one there. missing touch

That's better!

That's more like it - finally quick ball and attack accurately at pace.

We need two more!

Tempo is king for us. Pyrgos needs to really up things.

Great conversion from Hickey

20-8 Edinburgh

Bennett off. Don't know why!

Gilchrist has added some grunt to the scrum.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Tempo is king for us. Pyrgos needs to really up things.

Or Shiel to come on!

Drags scrum folded badly there

Hickey is getting some real rubbish from Pyrgos!

VDW and Shiel warming up.

Still think it was a bad decision to go for points on halftime - we really needed a 2nd try.

We're not going to get a BP and can hardly say we deserve it!

This is frustrating. So many mistakes. Still, great defence from the Dragons, particularly with Clancy giving up on the offside rule.

For once Clancy gets a call right!

Cockers needs to go absolutely through these players at full-time. I

No quibbles over the bonus point. We haven't deserved it.