All the stats and head-to-head battles as Edinburgh host Cardiff

Kevin Millar assesses the teams.

• Grant Gilchrist and Magnus Bradbury are the only players in the home side’s XV who also started the last time these teams met at the Hive. That was more than two years and nine months ago in a match that ended with Edinburgh top of the URC table.
• James Botham is the only man in the Cardiff lineup to start both this game and in January 2022.
• Twelve of the capital club’s 23 have played in every match so far this season.
• Wes Goosen and Grant Gilchrist are the only ones from that group to start all five fixtures.
• At 929kgs, this is the heaviest pack selected by Sean Everitt during his time in charge of Edinburgh.

The teams

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

Head to Head

Edinburgh vs Cardiff head-to-head (Image: Kevin Millar)

Edinburgh Introductions

D’Arcy Rae will make his first start for Edinburgh, more than a year on from joining the club and following nine appearances from the bench.

D'Arcy Rae starts at tighthead for Edinburgh (Image: SNS) The big prop has played Cardiff eight times before in his career – four starts and four subs – and finished on the winning side on each occasion.

Matchday Milestones

A number of Edinburgh players have been ever present during the five match run-in to last season and the opening rounds of the current campaign, but Ben Vellacott is the only one who has played in each of the club’s last 20 URC fixtures.

Ben Vellacott is an ever-present in Edinburgh's matchday squads (Image: SNS) The scrum-half also featured in all six of his side’s Challenge Cup matches during 2023/24 and hasn’t missed a game since injury ruled him out of a trip to play Leinster at the beginning of November last year.

Focal Point

Rotation and rest is key to keeping a side fresh during what will be a long season. Edinburgh have taken advantage of the return from injury of Luke Crosbie to cycle out Hamish Watson last week followed by Jamie Ritchie this time round to keep their back row resources fresh.

In the backline, injuries have dictated a lot of the selection choices outside 9 and 10. At its worst for the Lions’ fixture in Round 3, there were more players unavailable (eight injured and one on loan) than there were available (five) in the senior squad.

It is among the tight five where the real challenges might lie though. Outwith hooker, where four different players have been deployed, the same men have filled the starting and replacement berths in all five matches so far this season.

The lack of options are particularly stark for the props where injuries to Robin Hislop, Javan Sebastian and Angus Williams mean it’s academy backups only beyond the four players selected for this game.

In the club’s last 11 matches Pierre Schoeman and Boan Venter are the only players who have filled the loosehead prop slots in the number 1 and 17 jerseys.

Since Venter arrived in February 2021, either he or Schoeman have started at loosehead in 84 of the 89 games played by Edinburgh (Harrison Courtney 2, Luan de Bruin 1, Robin Hislop 1, Murray McCallum 1).

With Schoeman likely to be affected by rest protocols next week – and at various other times during the campaign – extending depth in this area could become increasingly important.

League form

Edinburgh vs Cardiff form guide (Image: Kevin Millar) Track record…

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

• Five wins
• Five losses
• One try bonus point
• Five Losing bonus points
• 26 points out of a possible 50 (52%)

Edinburgh also lost to Cardiff in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals in 2017/18.

Previous match-up v Cardiff at home

Officials

Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU, 11th league game) AR1: Fin Brown (SRU) AR2: Michael Todd (SRU) TMO: Griffin Colby (SARU)

Mr Ferreira’s record for season 2023/24:

• Matches – 10
• Average penalty count – 19.4 per game
• Home side penalties conceded percentage – 51.5%
• Average card count – 0.8 per game
• Penalties per card – 24.2

The South African officials on tour take charge of their third game in this block of fixtures, with Mr Ferreira having done Cardiff v Glasgow in Round 3 and Mr Colby, Glasgow v Zebre in Round 4.

The visitors should be all over the relatively inexperienced official’s tendencies. Based on that 13-try thriller at the Arms Park a couple of weeks ago, laissez faire probably best describes his approach at the breakdown.

Edinburgh have some players in their ranks who can take advantage in this area – but so do Cardiff and things could well get messy at the Hive.