Edinburgh v Sharks 18/4/25
Fish Food or Shark Fin Soup
When I was thinking about our win against the Bulls this quote from Die Hard popped up into my head.
“And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.”
My version though was more like this- And when Alexander saw how good the team could be he wept for there were no more moans to issue.
Of course there are ‘worlds’ to conquer and there may be moans to issue, you may even see one or two below, but an exciting match and a tense win has seen us make the semi final of the Challenge cup with all the possibility that comes with that and that is fantastic.
There were a number of things about the game that were memorable, not least, the performance of James Lang. He doesn’t score a lot of tries. His last one came in November 2023 against Leinster and then before that January 2022 against Cardiff but when I look back at my records his involvement in the creation of tries since he arrived in Edinburgh is in the high 20s. So, it was lovely to see him get a double and just be the creative link 12 that we need right now. He features in the top 10 of all the player stats in this match. It was probably his best game for Edinburgh.
The game we saw from Ewan Ashman was slightly more nuanced. In the loose he was immense. No one ran more metres with the ball or beat more defenders than he did. Turnovers, yup, those too. Lineouts, not so much and he never even made the 55 minutes I estimated in the match column. To be fair Akker van der Merwe, who may just have been a mentor for Ashy when they were both at Sale, was only marginally better.
If he could sort out his throwing he’d be in the frame for a summer tour in Australia that you might just have heard about.
Anyway we got over the line with a performance that had lots of good stuff about it on both sides of the ball and the reward is a home semi-final at the Hive against Bath. That’s a few weeks down the line so we’ll put it to one side for the moment. One thing I will say though is that as good as Bath are, we can win that game, especially if we continue with the vein of form we are currently showing.
One more thing on this. I heartily applaud and approve of the decision to play the game at the Hive. It may only be a small cog in the machinery that will hopefully lead to a place in the final but I believe it to be a vital piece .
This week though we take on high flying Sharks (Sharknado) in the URC. It’s a chance to get a win against all the SA sides in one season (in different competitions) and with the sides directly above us both having tough away fixtures it’s also a chance to move up the table a bit.
Our game is the first of the weekend so a win would also put extra pressure on those teams, Benetton and Ulster, who travel to Lions and Leinster respectively.
This will be match 4 against the side from Durban and we have only won on one occasion. A 5-21 win in South Africa in 2022 which meant Edinburgh were the first European side to win in SA in the URC.
Here’s the highlights that include a brace of tries from a really poor stand off that used to be with us and has left for some rubbish team, Toucans or Lousers or something like that -
The other two games have been losses with the most recent being a 23-13 reversal again in SA in March 2023.
I’m not going to go into who Sharks have selected because it’s too scary but instead here’s the graphics showing who has hitched a lift with them on this European tour that begins at the Hive on Friday night. I think we can all agree that whatever 23 they select from this list, it will be a formidable match day squad.
So where can we get an edge on this Sharks team? One area that jumped out at me from looking at the stats was that Sharks have the worst record in the URC this season for conceding turnovers. We have a couple, or three, if Freddy Douglas gets on, who are quite good in that department so there’s one aspect worth keeping an eye on.
Edinburgh are also top of the charts for penalties from scrums and Sharks are in the bottom quarter of the league for conceding scrum penalties so there’s two.
And believe it or not despite being 9 points behind them in the table we have scored more tries and have a better points difference.
It’s not an insurmountable task but it will be tough and has probably been made a little harder by the injuries and rest protocols that have led to changes in the Edinburgh lineup.
The continued absence of Paul Hill and now an injury to Javan Sebastian, who was on fire last week means D’arcy Rae is in at tighthead. That’s not an issue as Rae has plenty minutes under his belt this season and has played a part in 13 of our 14 league matches.
In the back row Hamish Watson is rested in favour of Ben Muncaster. This is probably a net gain. Mish has started 6 of the last 7 games so it’s reasonable to rest him even if it raises some questions in my mind.
Ben Vellacott is injured and Ali Price takes his place at 9. Not much to say about that except I think it hurts the way we’ve been playing. Charlie Shiel, fresh from signing another 1 year contract takes a seat on a bench he knows very well.
A few stats for you to appreciate this re-signing-
69 appearances in 7 seasons
6 tries
2182 minutes on the field for an average of 31 minutes per appearance
22 starts for an average of 3 per year
He cuts a great mullett.
Darcy Graham is also being rested and I’m glad we have a young player of Harry Paterson’s calibre to fill in for him but, and no disrespect intended to Harry, that does detract a bit from our attack.
So will it be shark fin soup or (Cullen) stink? Will we make fish food of Sharks or will they make us need a bigger boat? Our hopes have been raised by our recent form and I think it’s safe to say it will be a busy Hive cheering the team on.
This is probably our hardest game since, well, since we beat Bulls last week who are above Sharks in the league table so it's not a fait accompli. It’s the same message as last week as well. Get the best Edinburgh on the field and anything is achievable.
PS - the title and hopefully amusing text concerning shark fin soup is meant to be just that - amusing. I don’t condone the use of sharks fins to make soup and the trade in such things is banned in the UK under the terms of the Shark Fins Act 2023. Thankfully we can still make kangaroo pouch tortillas though cos they are super tasty!