Stormers vs Edinburgh: Key battles for Cape Town clash

Jake Henry has been handed his professional debut with a host of Scotland stars rested by Sean Everitt, though Sam Skinner and the URC's top points scorer Ben Healy do return.

Here, Kevin Millar takes us through some of the key numbers ahead of a big game in the capital club's bid to secure a home play-off. 

• Edinburgh’s winning percentage away from home in the league since the start of the 2021/22 season is 33%, with victories against Cardiff, Dragons (2), Sharks, Ulster and Zebre (3) during that time.
• Munster are the only northern hemisphere side to beat Stormers at home in the URC, managing this twice within the space of six weeks at the end of last season. The South African side’s only other home loss came against the Lions in Round 5 of the 2021/22 campaign.
• Ben Healy has played all 880 minutes of this season’s URC (already the most he has played in a league campaign during his career, with at least seven fixtures remaining). No other Edinburgh player has managed more than 712 minutes.

The teams

(players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Stormers/Edinburgh)

Head-to-heads

Edinburgh Introductions

There’s a long-awaited debut for Jake Henry who has shown a lot of promise for Scotland u20s and Scotland 7s as well as at club level and in the Super Six. A series of lengthy and unfortunately timed injuries have held him back, but he finally gets his opportunity here in a match-up that should hopefully see plenty of ball in hand for the wings.

Charlie Shiel hasn’t featured in a URC game since he started against Connacht on 11th November, a fixture that took place two days after the announcement of Ali Price’s season long loan to Edinburgh.

This is the sixth time that Cammy Scott has been named on the bench for a URC match this season. He has been left as an unused substitute on each of the previous five occasions.

Matchday Milestones

The tireless WP Nel plays for Edinburgh for the 200th time, 11½ years on from his debut. There are just four other players who have managed this feat for a Scottish side during the professional era:

• Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh) – 273
• Rob Harley (Glasgow) – 267
• Ryan Wilson (Glasgow) – 222
• Chris Paterson (Edinburgh) – 205

On Saturday, Nel will go head to head with a man who he has been playing against for at least 15 years – Stormers’ loosehead, Brok Harris. The veteran props have a combined age of 76 years, 11 months and 26 days.

With close to 800 games behind them there’s a decent chance that their accumulated experience includes more than 10,000 competitive scrums. This duo must know every trick in the book – and have probably been the originators of a few of them to boot!

Focal Point

Every match against a South African side brings a battle up front. Central to this are the locks – a position that South Africa continually churns out large, powerful and aggressive human beings who are extremely effective rugby players.

Edinburgh’s efforts to contain their opponents will be built on the foundations set by the graft from their second rows.

With Glen Young missing from the 23 for the first time this season, the capital club can at least call on experienced operator Sam Skinner.

The former Exeter man should enjoy playing from the start after some tricky times coming off the bench for Scotland during the Six Nations.

Hard work is what Jamie Hodgson always brings to the side. Injury has rather held him back this season, but this game presents a big opportunity for him to test himself against abrasive opponents and set down a marker.

That’s important not only for his club role but also with places likely to be up for grabs for Scotland’s summer tour.

Current form:

Edinburgh away to South African sides in the regular season during the PRO14/URC era:

· 2 wins

· 5 losses

· 2 Try BPs

· 3 Losing BPs

· 13 points out of a possible 35 (37%)

· Edinburgh also lost a URC playoff match away to Stormers during the 2021/22 season

Previous match-up vs Stormers in South Africa:

Officials:

Referee: Adam Jones (WRU, 34th league game)

ARs: AJ Jacobs and Hanru van Rooyen (both SARU)

TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Adam Jones’ record for 2022/23:

• Matches – 10
• Average penalty count – 21.7 per game
• Home side penalties conceded percentage – 50.8%
• Average card count – 2.6 per game
• Penalties per card – 8.5

Welsh official Jones took charge of one of the matches on Edinburgh’s South African sojourn during the 2022/23 season. The 14-10 penalty count and yellow card for Grant Gilchrist were far from ideal in the tightest of matches which was only won 33 – 31 by the Bulls with a penalty kick in the 79th minute.

The Welsh whistler has issued at least one card in 15 out of his last 16 URC fixtures. Given the Stormers’ potent home form, Edinburgh cannot afford to be the side that goes down a man so discipline must be supremely controlled this weekend.