All you need to know as Edinburgh aim to tame Lions

Kevin Millar looks at numbers behind the clash at Emirates Airline Park

• Wes Goosen is the only uncapped player in the Edinburgh lineup. Across the 23, the capital club boast 19 internationals with 479 Test caps, compared to three players with four caps in the Lions’ ranks.
• More than 50% of the previous tries scored by the visitors’ 23 (117 out of 217) belong to just four members of the starting backline – Duhan van der Merwe (43), Darcy Graham (34), Matt Scott (22) and Ben Vellacott (18).
• After the van der Merwe brothers clashed last week, this Round 3 matchup provides more sibling rivalry with the Schoemans filling both number 1 jerseys – Juan for the Lions and Pierre for Edinburgh.
• The younger Schoeman’s direct opponent will be 153kg (24 stone) tighthead, Asenathi Ntlabakanye. The giant prop isn’t just there for his set-piece (the Lions’ scrum was 100% against Ulster last week) as he also gets around the park as a regular carrier and one of the South African side’s top tacklers in Round 1.
• Following Saturday afternoon’s fixture, Lions’ fans will need to wait another 113 days before their side’s next home match at Emirates Airline Park.

The teams

Lions vs Edinburgh teams (Image: Kevin Millar) (players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Lions / Edinburgh)

Head to Head

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

Edinburgh Introductions

Patrick Harrison is the only player in the line-up making his season debut, with 19 of the 23 having been selected for all three matches so far in the campaign.

Patrick Harrison is set to feature off the bench for the first time this season (Image: SNS) The young hooker has played just 38 minutes for Edinburgh in the last 19 months, fewer than he has managed for Scotland during the same period (53 minutes).

Matchday Milestones

This will be the 100th URC match of Ali Price’s career – 97 for Glasgow and three for Edinburgh.

The scrum-half was actually selected by the Warriors for the first time, 10  years ago to the day – October 5 2014 for a PRO14 match away to Benetton.

Ali Price will mark 100 appearances in the URC if he gets off the Edinburgh bench (Image: SNS) He was an unused sub on that occasion but went on to make his club and tournament debut seven weeks later against Scarlets.

Focal Point

Since the start of last season, the most productive area of Edinburgh’s team for tries scored has been their front row.

Across their last 26 matches, props and hookers have contributed no fewer than 29 tries – well ahead of the fancy dans in the back 3 who usually grab the glory, but who have only notched 18 five-pointers during this spell.

While it feels like this balance needs to shift across the current season, it may well be worth leaning into that power and efficiency up front in this particular fixture.

The Lions thrive on a loose game and are spectacularly dangerous on the counter – as Glasgow discovered to their cost last season in Johannesburg.

Edinburgh may be better served by leaning into a setpiece focused game and looking to manipulate their way into the Lions’ 22 where they can let their big men get to work.

Current form

Lions vs Edinburgh form guide (Image: Kevin Millar)

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

• Two wins
• Eight losses
• Two try bonus points
• Four losing bonus points
• 14 points out of a possible 50 (28%)

Edinburgh also lost a URC playoff match away to Stormers during the 2021/22 season and a Challenge Cup quarter-final hosted by the Sharks in 2023/24.

Previous match-up v Lions in South Africa

Officials

Referee: Adam Jones (WRU, 39th league game); Assistants: Henru van Rooyen and Stephan Geldenhuys (both SARU); TMO: Keith David (WRU)

Mr Jones’s regular season record for 2023/24:

• Matches – 10
• Average penalty count – 18.3 per game
• Home side penalties conceded percentage – 48.6%
• Average card count – 1.6 per game
• Penalties per card – 11.4

Edinburgh will have a much more familiar Welsh referee in charge this weekend. After a fresh face in Mr Breakspear last week, Mr Jones has plenty of previous with the capital club.

Adam Jones will be the man in charge in Johannesburg (Image: SNS) This will be the third season running that the man from Swansea has taken charge of one of Edinburgh’s fixtures in South Africa and the ninth time in total that he has refereed the Scottish side.

He has dished out at least one card in 19 of his last 20 URC fixtures which means the odds of a side playing shorthanded at some stage are pretty high.

Given the altitude and heat Edinburgh will have to contend with, trying to tackle the Lions with 14 (or fewer) men is likely to be a recipe for disaster.