Edinburgh can make it three wins out of six in the URC if they are able to overcome the Ospreys on the road.
Kevin Millar considers their chances.
- In terms of previous appearances (1,265), this is the least experienced Edinburgh 23 named since Round 11 of the 2023/24 season (1,219), when they also faced Ospreys.
- Both Grant Gilchrist and Ali Price are omitted from the 23 for the first time in Edinburgh’s last 13 matches.
- This will be the sixth different scrum-half Ross Thompson has started outside in his last 10 outings for club and country (Ali Price – four; Jamie Dobie – two; Ben Afshar – one, George Horne – one; Ben Vellacott – one; Gus Warr – one).
- Following this fixture, five of Edinburgh’s next seven games are against opponents in the Italian X Scottish Shield.
The teams
(players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Ospreys / Edinburgh)
Head to Head
Edinburgh Introductions
Harry Paterson returns for his first Edinburgh appearance since the home fixture against the Ospreys on March 1 2024.
There are a further trio of players ready to be sprung from the bench for the first time this season after recovering from injuries.
Charlie Shiel has had to wait 211 days since his last outing for Edinburgh, while there have been even longer absences for both Glen Young (240 days) and Angus Williams (282 days).
Matchday Milestones
Matt Scott will bring up 100 appearances for Edinburgh. Now in his third spell for the club, he has taken more than 13 years to reach this milestone.
His first outing for the capital club came against Cardiff at Murrayfield back in September 2011.
It only took him 975 days to rack up a half-century (versus Munster at Meggetland in May 2014). The next 50 have taken just a little longer – 3,830 days to be precise.
Focal Point
As block one of this season’s URC comes to a close, this fixture will have a significant impact on how this group of six matches is viewed. Performance is secondary and the result is everything in Bridgend.
As things stand, the 13 points they have already collected isn’t a disastrous outcome if Edinburgh’s primary target is making the top eight – something which probably requires around 52 points at the end of the season just to be certain.
Taking nothing home from Wales this weekend would put a lot of pressure on their remaining matches though.
At the start of the campaign, the most sensible route to that 52-point tally would seem to come from nine home wins, two away wins and a decent return of bonus points.
So far, Sean Everitt’s side have proved themselves far more adept at gathering bonus points than last season’s exceptionally poor return, which should help their position in the final table.
A frustrating opening day loss against an under-strength Leinster team most likely means finding another win outside Edinburgh, though.
The top targets for away victories will come later (at Scarlets where the capital club have a decent record and in Parma against Zebre) but this game versus Ospreys may well represent one of the better chances of four (or even five) points on the road.
If the visitors can come away with the win in Round 6, they will keep themselves on track for a route to the playoffs and can begin to write off the first half against the Lions as an aberration.
That might be easier said than done as Edinburgh haven’t won in Wales against the Ospreys for 15 years…
Current form
Edinburgh away to Ospreys during the PRO12/PRO14/URC era:
- Eight losses
- Three losing bonus points
- Three points out of a possible 40 (8%)
Previous match-up v Ospreys in Wales
Officials
Referee: Griffin Colby (SARU, 2nd league game); Assistants: Adam Jones and Ben Breakspear (both WRU); TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Mr Griffin’s regular season record for 2024/25:
- Matches – 1
- Average penalty count – 24.0 per game
- Home side penalties conceded percentage – 54.1%
- Average card count – 0.0 per game
- Penalties per card – n/a
Colby’s league debut was Glasgow’s home fixture against Zebre two weeks ago. It was a relatively straightforward encounter but even allowing for that, the South African official had a solid outing.
The increased competitiveness of this fixture is likely to make for a trickier assignment. At least between this and a couple of turns in the TMO van across the last month, he will return home with some decent experience of Northern Hemisphere teams and conditions under his belt.
Read the rules here