Benetton v Edinburgh 22/3/25
Wise or Pennywise
It’s been a long 3 weeks since Edinburgh’s last competitive match but there have been some diversions.
Scotland played their remaining two games in this years 6N with a win against Wales and defeat away to France. Overall I can’t make up my mind whether I’m underwhelmed or whether the outcome was pretty much on par. We won the games we would have expected to win, lost the ones we would have expected to lose. The England game on paper could have gone either way and in the end it was a paper thin margin that decided it. The final table makes it clear that even had we won that we would still have been fourth.
From an Edinburgh personnel point of view Jamie Ritchie was the our stand out performer and topped the turnover stats for the tournament as a whole. It was amusing to hear the pundits and commentators praise his ability around the kick chase like it was a novelty. Perhaps a little homework might have helped there.
On the flip side it wasn’t a great period for Ewan Ashman. His throwing in was rightly criticised and his discipline was also an issue. To be fair to him he only got 135 minutes across all 5 games as Dave Cherry’s Luke Littler style darts kept him on the field for the majority of the games.
If I was to say bolter = Cherry I’m sure you know what I’m writing about and you may be laughing but consider this. No hooker in the 6N had more turnovers and Scotland won more lineouts than any other team. I’m sure Dan Sheehan will be pencilled in as a starter but watch this space and don’t place any bets based on my ramblings.
It was good to see Marshall Sykes (no. 12 in the URC for tackles made) and Ben Muncaster get a few minutes against France.
The U20s 6N also came to a close and I don’t think I’m stretching it too far when I say that if Ollie Duncan and Freddy Douglas had been available for the game against Italy we would have been looking at a 4th place finish in the table. I was also impressed by Jack Brown at fullback. Freddy’s try against France in the last game was one of my highlights of the 6N at both levels.
Edinburgh played a mid season friendly against Saracens the same night as that France U20s game and I’m reliably informed (thanks EdinBru) that it was a good watch and that Harri Morris put in a load of tackles and that former Edinburgh man Freddie Owsley showed he has a point of difference that could still be valuable at pro level.
Ross McKnight’s fine performance and hat-trick has earned him a short term contract with Edinburgh. His hat-trick doesn’t make the official list but I doubt that’ll dampen his spirit.
On the back of all of the above it seems like ages ago but you may just remember we beat Munster. In Ireland. Matt Currie scored a hat-trick. We scored 5 tries and 34 points - both more than we ever have against Munster in our history.
If you want to read a bit about Edinburgh hat-tricks click HERE.
It was without doubt a significant win for Edinburgh and with a few other results going our way we remain 7th in the table going into this weekend's visit to Treviso to face Benetton.
At first glance this could be assessed as an eminently winnable game. Benetton are 13th in the league but they have won the same number of games as Edinburgh and it’s only those precious bonus points that separate us with Edinburgh on 30 points and Benetton on 28.
And here’s the biggie. We haven’t beaten Benetton in Italy since 2017. A 13-24 win. That was only our third win in 13 attempts. Thankfully our 50-33 home win against them from earlier this season is a bit more encouraging and hopefully more relevant.
Benetton have only lost at home twice this year and that was to Leinster on the opening day with their last defeat at Stadio Monigo being in October v Bulls. They have named an experienced side for this encounter that includes Italian internationals who played last week against Ireland, Simone Ferrari and Manuel Zuliani in the pack and in the back line centres Tomas Menoncello, and Juan Ignacio Brex feature.
Top try scorer for Benetton, Rhyno Smith is on the right wing.
Gus Creevy is on the bench covering the hooker position along with some more Italian internationals including Michele Lamaro and Federico Ruzza.
For Edinburgh there is only one change to the XV that defeated Munster, with Hamish Watson starting rather than coming on after 3 minutes. This is only the second time this season we’ve taken to the field with 14 of the preceding fixtures 15. The previous being when we put 52 points past Bayonne and the only player who didn’t make the trip to Scotstoun the week after was Paul Hill. We haven’t fielded the exact same 15 in consecutive games all season.
The side that won in Cork deserves another shot. Like Munster it’s an away game at a place we don’t have a great record at.
From a personal point of view I’d have liked to have seen Jack Brown and Freddy Douglas starting but there is the foregoing to consider as well as the fact they’ve just finished with the U20’s.
Goosen is this years’ Ben Healy in that he has more minutes on field than anyone else in the URC.
Six games to go and they are all winnable. Whether they can be will depend on A. which France Edinburgh turns up and B. the opposition. The two toughest, Sharks and Ulster are at home along with Dragons who we haven’t lost to in Edinburgh since 2009. The other 3 (this weeks game, Zebre & Connacht) are away.
3 wins or less will mean premature ejection from season 24-25.
4 wins could mean 8th.
5 wins could mean 7th.
6 wins and i’ll gladly wear a clown suit to the first game next season.