Zebre v Edinburgh - 27/9/25

Proven or undercooked?

Pre-season is done and real competition is now upon us. There will be many tests between now and late June 2026 including away visits to the reigning champions in both the Prem and the URC as well as a double header in South Africa against teams that we have never beaten on their own turf but it all begins on Saturday in Parma against Zebre.

Zebre Parma are a conundrum for Edinburgh. On one hand our win ratio of 71% is a number we don’t come anywhere close to for any other of our regular opponents but we have lost and drawn our last 2 games against them and both of those games were hard to take.

Game 1 was on 14/2/25 and was definitely more Bloody Valentine than Romeo and Juliet. I was so angry following the game I wrote my piece for the BBC Sport website in a bit of a rage and for the only time in the 50+ columns I wrote for them it was returned to me as being too harsh.

Here is the rejected opening paragraph. I’ll keep the rest of the text to myself but in essence it was inspired by a documentary abut the miners strike.

If there was a union representing Edinburgh supporters it'd be called the Dis-united Observers union and right now we'd be asking our representatives to present our demands.

In the match column for the following game against Munster I referenced Dantes’ 9 circles of hell and said that he’d forgot about the 10th circle - being an Edinburgh supporter.

Of course the team then travelled to Ireland and did something that they hadn’t managed in 5 previous attempts v Munster, home or away, and recorded a famous win. A win that was also our first one on the road in the season.

The 2nd game was on 25/4/25. It had originally been scheduled for the day after but was brought forward because of events surrounding the Popes funeral. The first half was horrible. It was flatter than a tortilla injected with Mounjaro and after 42 minutes a rudderless Edinburgh were 19-6 down.

A couple of minutes later Grant Gilchrist was subbed on and with his introduction some leadership seemed to be restored which led to Edinburgh turning the tables in the remaining time. Zebre didn’t cross the line again and Edinburgh scored 3 tries. There was a short range double from our Springbok Boan Venter and then the excitement of Matt Currie going over in the corner and Cammy Scott levelling the game with the conversion with the clock in the red.

It was dramatic and a probably undeserved 2 points but it did at least show a level of fightback that hasn’t always been evident in this team.

It is then somewhat prophetic that we kick off our URC campaign against a team that have confounded us in recent times. What better way to demonstrate our growth and hopefully credentials as contendors at the very least?

I’m feeling confident of a good season but not directly as a result of watching the pre-season games, especially last weeks double headers against Knights and Trailfinders.

There were some good moments. In the early game Malili Satala’s first try was a real highlight. A chip to beat two defenders, re-gathered and then a double pump dummy which allowed him to get past the third defender was lovely and he probably deserved the man of the match award for that alone but he showed up well across the whole 80 also. It was an entertaining game and a good run out for the mostly academy players that took part. A little more physicality against what looked like a mature Knights team would probably have seen them close it out.

The game against Trailfinders was a bit more disjointed. It also had it’s moments though. It was good to see Lewis Wells back playing and Vellacott’s break and pass allowed him to celebrate that return with a long distance try. There was also a good try from Ross McCann who had been looking like he had grown into the side last year before injury curtailed his time.

I thought Edinburgh’s defence looked good for the most part and being able to win by 5 tries to 2 and still think it was a bit stodgy is a luxury.

My main concern going into the Zebre game from this pre-season is that there were 160 minutes available to get anyone in the starting XV this week up and running. That’s 2400 minutes for the whole team but en masse they’ve only played 975 minutes.

I’m not suggesting that anyone will be unfit, the club will have all the numbers showing everyone’s levels in that department and the proof will be in the gelato but if we lose this one the dent it will cause will be more than just numerical.

Zebre Parma’s pre-season games have consisted of an away defeat to Lyon on 29/8/25 and then a win at home against Black Lion on 6/9/25.

They have a number of recruits for the new season -

Francesco Ruffalo (22) - 2nd row

David Odiase (22)- flanker already capped for Italy in Summer v SA

Guilo Bertaccini (24) - centre - also capped for Italy in summer

Mirko Belloni (21) - fullback - capped in summer for Italy

Samuele Locatelli (24) - flanker

Franco Carrera (26) - Argentine 2nd row

They have also brought in a player called Albert Einstein Batista. He is a 25 year old winger who had been playing at Colorno and was previously capped by Italy at under 20 level. He was asked how he felt about his transfer and replied “int_{0} ^ {π/2} {x * prod_{j = 1} ^ {∞} {cos(x / 2^j )}} dx”

Marco Zanon has also joined Zebre from Benetton where he had been for the last 8 seasons. He only managed 6 appearances for Benetton last season (injuries?) but was still playing for Italy as recently as their double header v South Africa in the summer.

There have been some departures of players you may know. Prop Danilo Fischetti and 2nd row Andrea Zambonin have joined Northampton and Exeter respectively. Hooker Luca Bigi has returned to his roots at Valorugby Emilia and Argentine international Geronimo Prisciantelli has moved to Racing.

Of their arrivals, Bertaccini and Belloni start this weekend. Locatelli is on the bench.

In our last outing against Zebre scrum half Alessandro Fusco scored an almost identical double of close range snipe type tries 10 minutes apart in the first half of that game. He returns on Saturday. No more of those please!

I think it’s fair to describe Edinburgh’s casualty list as extensive. 12 players, of which two, Rhys Litterick and Charlie McCaig, are described as being out for the entire season and of the remaining 10 at least half of them would have been in serious consideration to be in the starting XV this week.

That said this is still a strong 15 that has been selected and the bench should definitely be subtitled “Ooft.”

As previously mentioned there’s an early chance for James Whitcombe although Schoey is on that bench and will no doubt get a tun out from around 56 minutes. Paul Hill makes a welcome competitive return and the front row is completed by hooker and B&I Lion Ewan Ashman!

Double centurion Grant Gilchrist is once again in the second row alongside Marshall Sykes who was second only to Hamish Watson for tackling last season (Mish 248 Sykes 239)

It’s an interesting choice in the back row. Liam McConnell makes only his second competitive start at 6 with the previous being against Scarlets away last season.

This is the first start combining the two Bens at halfback since Munster in May 2024.

James Lang who finished our last campaign with 3 tries to his name is partnered by Edinburgh debutante Piers O’Conor who also finished his time at Connacht with 3 tries.

Our 15 Wes Goosen, who had most minutes for Edinburgh last season is flanked by Jack Brown and Harry Paterson whilst we keep the not so secret weapon of Duhan on the bench for a late introduction when everyone else is toiling a bit.

Let me save you some time. Tom English and Andy Burke at the BBC think 6th is the best we can do. Rob Robertson at Scotland Rugby News goes further and behind that pesky paywall opines that,

“Edinburgh don't have the quality to finish in the top four”

but he also hedged his bet and said,

“……they should have enough to finish between fifth and eighth in the 16-team league to get an away play-off tie.” at the same time as more or less dismissing Wes Goosen as a cut-rate Emiliano Boffelli.

Stuart Bathgate at The Offside Line had an even sharper cut and said we will be 8th.

Meanwhile you may have missed a wee section on BBC Scotland News on Tuesday (44 seconds after about 3hrs talking about football) where Sean Everitt outlined our target for the season. Fair play to him for taking this position -

I am with Sean on this. Top 4 is achievable. Truth be told we may fall a little short but by short I mean 5th. We may not have set the heather on fire in our pre-season and as mentioned above I may be concerned about being under-cooked but it’s all about choices and then living with the outcome. The denouement doesn’t come with the final whistle on Saturday, that’s just the first act.

It is an important scene though and will go a long way towards setting a tone for the season.

Think Usual Suspects. You won’t know the full story until you see Keyser Soze limping away from the Police Station having fooled them all.