Hamish Watson and Duhan van der Merwe are both now on course to turn out for Scotland against England a week today, even though the forward will return to action for the first time in two months this afternoon while the winger has still to play since the turn of the year.
Watson, 31, has been named in the Edinburgh team to play the Sharks in this afternoon’s home league game, one of eight changes made by head coach Mike Blair from the side that began last week’s Champions Cup win over Saracens.
The openside flanker has not played since he sustained a head injury in Scotland’s Autumn Test against the All Blacks in November, but he always had his sights set on returning in time for the Six Nations opener at Twickenham.
“He’s been through all the protocols,” Blair said. “There were no issues with any of the feedback and the scans, so he’s been progressing back in.
“He’s been running for a long time, and this is the third week he’s been in training with us. He’s in the national squad, so I’d imagine he’d go straight back in there afterwards.”
Van der Merwe, 27, has been out of action because of an ankle injury, although he also had time out to go and get married in South Africa. Blair believes that he is the type of player who needs little if any match practice to get up to speed, and is fairly sure he can go straight into Gregor Townsend’s team for the Twickenham trip.
“I’d be pretty confident,” the coach continued. “He’s an athlete first and foremost. He’s fortunate in a way, in that his super strengths are things that he’s very much in control of – his speed, his power, his work rate to get his hands on ball.
“In some other positions – a 9 or a 10, for example – you’d want guys to sharpen up. But I think positions like the back three can get away with it. And I think Duhan will be fit and firing come next week.”
Seven of Blair’s changes from last week are in the pack, where No.8 Bill Mata is the only one to keep his place. The one personnel change in the backs sees winger Wes Goosen return to the right wing, while Jack Blain moves from there to the left wing to accommodate him.
READ MORE: Scotland in a ‘good place’ ahead of Six Nations, says Jamie Ritchie
Edinburgh have named eight senior players, including the likes of Pierre Schoeman and Jamie Ritchie as well as Van der Merwe, as unavailable because they are with Scotland. Another eight are still on the injury list, but even so, from Henry Immelman at full-back to Mata in the back row, it still looks like a competitive line-up.
Something similar could be said of South Africa’s Sharks, who have rested some of their best players, including World Cup winning forwards Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth, but they are still a formidable outfit, especially up front.
“Sharks have got strength in depth,” Blair added. “Look at the side they’ve been able to put out. Yes, they are missing a couple of players, but they’ve got Thomas du Toit and Carlu Sadie at tighthead, and the scrum has been one of their go-to strengths, so they’re not losing anything there.
“The back row they’re able to put out is extremely mobile. The line-out they’ve got, there’s a slight change from the way Etzebeth would play, but these are big men, they’ll challenge us in different ways. So although we might not get the same pressure from a maul point of view as Etzebeth, for example, we’re going to be tested more on winning the line-out. They’re pretty strong.”
Edinburgh go into today’s match in the eighth and last play-off place in the URC table, a place and a point ahead of their visitors, who have two games in hand. After this match they have a three-week break before heading to Wales for a game against the Scarlets.
Edinburgh (at the DAM Health Stadium, today 5.15pm): H Immelman; W Goosen, M Bennett, J Lang, J Blain; C Savala, B Vellacott; B Venter, A McBurney, M McCallum, M Sykes, G Young, N Haining, H Watson, V Mata. Substitutes: D Cherry, L de Bruin, L Atalifo, J Hodgson, B Muncaster, C Shiel, J van der Walt, C Hutchison.
Sharks: A Fassi; M Potgieter, F Venter, B Tapuai, T Abrahams; C Bosch, G Williams; O Nche, K van Vuuren, T du Toit, H Andrews, G Grobler, J Venter, H Venter, P Buthelezi (captain). Substitutes: D Jooste, N Mchunu, C Sadie, R Hugo, S Notshe, C Wright, L Cronje, Y Penxe.
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand).
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