{"id":125986,"date":"2025-09-09T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/125986\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T20:38:08","slug":"edinburgh-boss-selfishly-weighs-in-on-latest-rassie-erasmus-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/125986\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh boss ‘selfishly’ weighs in on latest Rassie Erasmus call"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edinburgh<\/a> head coach Sean Everitt has backed Duhan van der Merwe<\/a> to bounce back from his underwhelming British & Irish Lions<\/a> tour and become a better player for club and country.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s record try-scorer started all three Tests on the previous Lions expedition to South Africa<\/a> in 2021 after a prolific first season of international rugby.<\/p>\n

But having not played for 11 weeks before this summer\u2019s tour of Australia<\/a> after an ankle injury suffered in late March, Van der Merwe\u2019s rustiness was evident in his two outings for the Lions against Argentina<\/a> and Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n

He still finished as the tourists\u2019 top try-scorer overall with five in five outings, including a hat-trick against an AUNZ Invitational XV, but never really threatened to muscle past Tommy Freeman<\/a> and James Lowe<\/a>, who started the first two Tests, before Scotland<\/a> team-mate Blair Kinghorn<\/a> replaced Lowe on the left wing for the third Test.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

United Rugby Championship<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Zebre <\/p>\n

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Edinburgh <\/p>\n

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\u201cHe would have been disappointed in not getting a Test opportunity,\u201d Everitt said. \u201cEveryone strives to play in a Test match for the Lions so that is disappointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also a lot to learn out of that. You\u2019ve got to take the learnings from when things don\u2019t go your way to become better. And being the true professional that he is and how he\u2019s bounced back from several disappointments over his life and his career, we know that he\u2019ll be back and giving his best for Edinburgh and for Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Van der Merwe\u2019s defensive positioning came under scrutiny during his first two outings in the red shirt, with the Lions\u2019 own stats suggesting<\/a> he missed four of the 15 tackles made on tour, as well as turning over possession five times.<\/p>\n

But while he emerged with a 76 per cent gainline success rate in his ball-carrying, Everitt suggested the 30-year-old may have been a victim of Lions head coach Andy Farrell\u2019s preference for those he knew better from his Ireland<\/a> role.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly hasn\u2019t shown those [defensive] frailties when playing for Edinburgh or for Scotland,\u201d he said. \u201cI think you\u2019ve got to look at Duhi\u2019s season as a whole and the fact he didn\u2019t play for 11 weeks up until the first game he put his Lions jumper on against Argentina. So, that\u2019s always going to be a tough ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need a run of games to build your confidence. In saying that, he did score a couple of tries but then you\u2019ve got to also look at it from Andy Farrell\u2019s side. He coaches Ireland and he knows what he\u2019s got around him. Unfortunately, if you look back in history at selections of the Lions, it will always be about the nature of the beast. Maybe if Rassie Erasmus<\/a> coached the Lions, and South Africans qualified for that team, there would probably be quite a lot in that team too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything different, and I think just to be part of that tour is massive anyway. And what a great experience to learn from some of the best coaches in the world, which can only make you a better player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other Edinburgh player selected in the original Lions squad, prop Pierre Schoeman<\/a>, also failed to make a Test-match 23, but featured in five games including four starts and was widely praised for the attitude and energy he brought to the tour party.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s disappointed because you want to play (Tests) and they\u2019re some of the top competitors in world rugby and they perform well for their country, so you want to put on that red jumper against Australia,\u201d Everitt said. \u201cBut Schoey is the type of guy that will take the positives out of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking together with guys like Andrew Porter<\/a> and Ellis Genge<\/a>, he would have learned so much and become a better player now, and that\u2019s good for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelfishly, you want players to stay with Edinburgh, but when they get that opportunity with Scotland they come back to me as a better player, and likewise with the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m hoping that Ashey [Ewan Ashman], Darcy [Graham], Duhan and Pierre come back better players and impart that knowledge that they learned from their fellow players as well as the coaches over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham was considered unfortunate to miss out on selection for the initial Lions squad. Having earned a late call-up as a replacement, the prolific wing scored a try on his Lions debut in the final midweek match against First Nations & Pasifika, only to be forced off with an ankle injury just 17 minutes in which curtailed any further involvement in the tour.<\/p>\n

It was the latest blow in a series of injury setbacks for the Borderer, who is second on Scotland\u2019s all-time list with 31 tries in 46 Tests, one behind Van der Merwe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually heartbreaking, to be quite honest with you, because I could just imagine the hurt he had, first of all by not being selected after finishing off so strongly in the URC, and then getting the call-up and being probably one of the best players on the field in only 15 minutes,\u201d Everitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen your tour comes to an end which was really disappointing for him. But he\u2019s been through a lot of adversity before and he\u2019s got a lot of resilience, so I\u2019m sure that he\u2019ll get over that and want to prove a point again because that\u2019s just the nature of the guy. He just loves being on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everitt is optimistic Graham will be back in action by the second round of the URC \u2013 Edinburgh host Ulster<\/a> on October 3 \u2013 with their opener away to Zebre<\/a> a week earlier likely to come slightly too soon.<\/p>\n

While Van der Merwe and Schoeman are likely to be available for the start of the league season, Everitt may be without Schoeman\u2019s regular loosehead understudy Boan Venter<\/a>, who has featured off the bench for South Africa in the first three rounds of The Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n

While Venter has dropped out of the 23 for Saturday\u2019s second fixture against the All Blacks<\/a> in Wellington, he may be retained by Rassie Erasmus for the final two legs of the Springboks\u2019 campaign, which concludes against Argentina on October 4, the same weekend as Edinburgh\u2019s match against Ulster.<\/p>\n

\u201cRassie\u2019s rotating his squad quite a lot at this stage so we\u2019re hopeful, selfishly,\u201d Everitt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for him to get that experience of playing in the Rugby Championship<\/a> is going to give us a better player coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s been a dream for him. And when someone achieves their dream, you\u2019ve got to be happy for the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venter would have qualified to play for Scotland on residency grounds in February, but having opted to answer the call from his native country, may find he is viewed slightly differently by Scottish Rugby officials when they come to consider a renewal of his contract, which expires at the end of this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had negotiations around Boan,\u201d Everitt said. \u201cIt\u2019s always good to have guys of that quality in your squad. We also have to understand that we\u2019ve got a responsibility to bring the next player through. That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean Boan\u2019s not going to be looked at because we have youngsters in that position and they\u2019ve got a growth period that they need to go through to be able to represent Scotland. But having senior players like that within our squad does help with the development of those youngsters.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scotland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

USA <\/p>\n

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As for Everitt\u2019s own future, while negotiations over the South African\u2019s contract \u2013 which runs out at the end of the season \u2013 have yet to begin, Scottish Rugby\u2019s consultant performance director David Nucifora<\/a> said last week talks would likely begin in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Everitt believes he has \u201cunfinished business\u201d at the club, who finished seventh in the URC last season before losing a quarter-final to Bulls, after a 10th-placed finish in his first campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the life of a coach,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know, it works both ways. It\u2019ll be interesting if we\u2019ve had five out of five (wins) after the first five rounds!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve enjoyed my time in Edinburgh and I\u2019ve loved working with the players. And I actually enjoy the challenge of us now looking ahead and bringing through the next generation of players as well. So that doesn\u2019t happen overnight. And I suppose, you know, you don\u2019t want to leave unfinished business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt has backed Duhan van der Merwe to bounce back from his underwhelming British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-125986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}