All you need to know ahead of Edinburgh vs Leinster

Kevin Millar picks out some of the top stats and assesses the match.

• There are nine changes to the Edinburgh starting line-up that lost to Benetton at the end of last season with Matt Currie, Duhan van der Merwe, Ali Price, Pierre Schoeman, Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie the players retaining their places in the XV.
• The capital club are still building up the Hive as an intimidating venue for teams to visit – with seven losses and a draw in the URC among their results since they moved in – but last season’s two defeats came by a combined five points and they will be targeting a 100% record at home during 2024/25.
• During his time with Glasgow, Ross Thompson had a win percentage of 65% when wearing the number 10 jersey – the best record of any stand off with at least ten starts for the Warriors.
• Ben Vellacott scored Edinburgh’s first try of the season in both 2022/23 and 2023/24. Being on the bench makes this a tougher assignment but can he make it a hat-trick on Friday evening – a feat last achieved by Tim Visser between 2011 and 2013?
• There are 12 full internationals with 397 caps in the Edinburgh starting lineup compared to seven players with 241 caps in the Leinster XV.

The teams

Edinburgh vs Leinster teams (Image: Kevin Millar) (players in CAPITALS are  internationals)

Head to Heads

Edinburgh vs Leinster head-to-heads (Image: Kevin Millar)

Edinburgh Introductions

Three brand new faces will make their first competitive appearances for the club – Paul Hill, Ross Thompson and Mosese Tuipulotu – while Edinburgh old boy Magnus Bradbury is in line for a second debut, 840 days on from his last outing in the URC.

Mosese Tuipulotu is one of three players who will make their competitive Edinburgh debuts against Leinster (Image: SNS) While he may not have faced as long a gap as Bradbury, injuries have meant that winger Darcy Graham has had to wait 252 days for some competitive action in a blue and orange jersey.

Matchday Milestones

With Graham fit again, the Prince of Hawick can renew his (friendly) rivalry with Duhan van der Merwe as the two wide men push each other to ever greater feats of try-scoring.

At the end of last year’s World Cup, Graham had a lead of three Test tries over his teammate (24 v 21) and was level on scores for Edinburgh (34 v 34).

Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe will restart their try-scoring battle (Image: SNS)

Now he finds himself behind by seven (for club) and four (for country) and needing some classic Darcy moments if he wants to get back in front.

Both men have still got some way to go to catch Edinburgh’s leading try scorer though. Tim Visser managed a remarkable 69 five-pointers during his time in the capital.

On the Leinster side, Cian Healy should make a record-equalling 280th appearance for the Irish province.

When the veteran prop made his club debut in May 2007 his current team-mate Gus McCarthy was three years old and the Border Reivers line-up that provided Healy’s first opposition included current Edinburgh skills coach, Rob Chrystie (and Scotland boss Gregor Townsend).

Focal Point

At first glance, the fixture scheduling algorithm hasn’t been particularly kind to Edinburgh as they look to make a fast start to the new campaign.

In their first block of six fixtures leading up to the Autumn Test window, they will face five teams who finished ahead of them in the league last season.

With 12 wins (or 11 plus a much-improved haul of bonus points) likely to be required to put them solidly into the playoff spots, Edinburgh really need an absolute minimum of three victories in their opening half dozen games.

It may actually work in their favour getting some of the stronger teams early on. Leinster are not yet at full strength, while Rugby Championship duties and mandated rests are likely to remove a whole rake of Springboks from the South African sides that Edinburgh face on three consecutive weekends for rounds two to four. 

The capital club have a solid record in first games of the season having won seven of their last 10 dating back to 2014/15. That really needs to become eight of 11 against a Leinster team that mixes up-and-coming pros in with Ireland internationals.

URC form

Edinburgh (H) – L W W W W L

Leinster (A) – W W L L L L

Track record…

…at home to Leinster in the PRO12/PRO14/URC era:

• Four wins
• Four losses
• Three try bonus points
• 19 points out of a possible 40 (48%)

Previous match-up v Leinster at home

Officials

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR, 46th league game); ARs: Jonny Perriam and Michael Todd (both SRU); TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)

Piardi’s record for season 2023/24

• Matches – 15
• Average penalty count – 19.2 per game
• Home side penalties conceded percentage – 47.9%
• Average card count – 1.6 per game
• Penalties per card – 12.0

Mr Piardi refereed Leinster three times last season, with the Irish side managing to win one, draw one and lose one on the penalty count.

Andrea Piardi is the man in the middle at Hive Stadium (Image: SNS) The 2022/23 season was the last time the Italian took charge of an Edinburgh game. After a bright season opener that saw the capital club stuff the Dragons (who conceded 21 penalties) they lost their next three with Piardi as referee (despite winning the offence count in two of those fixtures).

He has dished out at least one card in 11 of his last 13 games – but the home side haven’t had a player sin-binned at the Hive for nearly 10  months. That level of iron discipline could be very handy against a Leinster side who will exploit any advantage.