ERONI Sau will play his last game for Edinburgh tomorrow against Scarlets in the Rainbow Cup, having been named as one of ten players who are leaving the squad at the end of the season. The Fijian winger has enjoyed some impressive outings of late, with his impact in the tackle being particularly notable, and leaves after two seasons in Richard Cockerill’s squad.
Scotland international prop Murray McCallum is also on his way at the end of the month, in his case after four years as a full-time pro. Of the other departures announced yesterday, however, most were already known to be moving on.
The ten are: Sau, McCallum, Simon Berghan, Andrew Davidson, Jamie Farndale, Andries Ferreira, Duhan van der Merwe, Ali Miller, Dan Nutton and Mike Willemse. They are joined by five others who have already left over the course of the season: Rory Darge, Matt Gordon, Nic Groom, Fraser McKenzie and Korie Winters.
With Van der Merwe and his fellow-Lion Hamish Watson rested for the trip to Wales along with three members of the Scotland Under-20 squad, Sau is just one of five players who keep their place from last week’s narrow defeat by Ulster. Blair Kinghorn again starts at full-back, while the others who hold on to their places are James Johnstone, Marshall Sykes and captain Jamie Ritchie. Of the newcomers, former Ayr and Scotland Sevens back is handed a debut at full-back, and Cammy Hutchison makes his second appearance at centre.
Neither Edinburgh nor Scarlets have anything to play for, but Cockerill insisted his players would be well motivated. “I don’t think it’s a dead rubber by any means for us,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for guys to get good experience and put themselves in a good place for next season.”
READ MORE: Glasgow Warriors' Leone Nakarawa facing uncertain future as Ulster move falls through
However, despite that assertion, the head coach said he would be keeping a weather eye on the England football team’s game against Croatia, which kicks off at 2pm, an hour after proceedings get under way in Llanelli. The former England international also suggested he might have to go into hiding if Scotland win at Wembley next Friday in the teams’ European Championship clash, and admitted he was not overly optimistic about his own country’s overall chances in the tournament.
“I might get the game on my phone in the coaches’ box and watch both at the same time,” he said. “We’ll see which one is more entertaining.
“But you know what it’s like – we’ll talk ourselves up, it’s coming home and all that. And then we’ll cock it up at some point along the way.
“The big one is on Friday, so I’ll need to meet up with my Scottish coaches and have a bit of banter around that. As long as England don’t lose to Scotland. Can you imagine the amount of shit I’m going to get if that happens?
“We can’t beat you at rugby, we can’t beat at cricket and can’t beat you at football. I’ll be going into hiding if we lose!”
READ MORE: Adam Hastings: Why Glasgow's win over Leinster was one of my best in a Warriors shirt
Edinburgh (v Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets, tomorrow, 1pm): K Rowe; J Blain, J Johnstone, C Hutchison, E Sau; B Kinghorn, H Pyrgos; P Schoeman, M Willemse, A Williams, M Sykes, J Hodgson, J Ritchie (captain), C Boyle, M Kunavula. Substitutes: D Cherry, B Venter, S Berghan, A Miller, L Crosbie, C Shiel, N Chamberlain, G Taylor.
Scarlets: T Rogers; R Conbeer, T Morgan, S Hughes, S Evans; D Jones, K Hardy; S Thomas, R Elias (captain), P Scholtz, J Helps, M Jones, B Thomson, J Morgan, U Cassiem. Substitutes: D Hughes, R Evans, S Lee, D Drake, I Rees, W Homer, S Costelow, J Roberts.
Referee: F Murphy (Ireland).
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here