Edinburgh make plans to follow Cape Town developments as big call made at full-back

A win for the capital club in Treviso will guarantee a top-eight finish in the United Rugby Championship and a place in the play-offs. But a defeat would leave Edinburgh sweating on results elsewhere and a win for the Lions in the South African derby would help their cause.

With just one round of regular league matches to go, six teams are through to the play-offs. Five teams - Edinburgh, Benetton, Lions, Connacht and Ospreys – are battling it out for the two remaining spots. Edinburgh’s game in Italy kicks off at 1pm UK time, while Stormers v Lions is scheduled for 12.45pm. It means Everitt should know the result from Cape Town as his own club’s game reaches its climax.

“Obviously our focus is on us but if our game becomes tight we need to know what’s going on there,” said the coach. “They kick off 15 minutes before us so when those crucial decisions have to be made in a tight game at the end – whether to go for the corner, whether to go for the posts - that will come into play, so we’ll definitely have one ear on that game coming into the last 20 minutes of ours.”

Edinburgh, Benetton and Lions all have 49 points going into the final weekend, while Connacht and Ospreys each have 45. Everitt’s side are currently seventh, above Benetton and the Lions by virtue of having won more games (11) than the other two (10 and nine, respectively).

A draw would be enough for Edinburgh to qualify for the play-off quarter-finals provided they match Benetton’s match-point tally but Everitt dismissed such talk. “We’re going out as we normally do - we want to win the game,” he said. “There are different permutations with a draw. Should the Lions get a result, Benetton score four tries and we don’t, they would get three [points] and we would get two. We could be in trouble. The simple message is to go out and win the game.”

Edinburgh have made four personnel changes to the side which lost narrowly at home to Munster a fortnight ago. Luke Crosbie, making his 100th appearance for the club, replaces Hamish Watson in the back row; Ali Price starts at scrum-half ahead of Ben Vellacott; Chris Dean comes in at inside centre and James Lang switches to full-back to replace the injured Wes Goosen, with Mark Bennett dropping to the bench; Jake Henry returns from injury, allowing Matt Currie to move from wing to outside centre. Watson and Vellacott join Bennett among the replacements.

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