'Real difference': Edinburgh Rugby change promised after coaching revamp but key players missing

Davis, who has joined from Queensland Reds, is in charge of the capital club’s defence as they seek to play a faster brand of rugby.

Their first competitive outing comes this Friday against Ulster in Belfast as Edinburgh look to make a better start than last season when they lost their opening two games.

Sean Everitt’s side finished the regular URC campaign in 12th place, missing out on the play-offs and leading to the overhaul of the coaching and medical staff. Head coach Everitt remains in situ along with forwards coach Stevie Lawrie and they are joined by Davis and attack coach Tim Sampson, who have replaced Michael Todd and Scott Mathie, respectively.

‘Frustration and angst’

Edinburgh lost narrowly to Ulster in a pre-season game earlier this month and were then edged out by Harlequins last Friday in their final warm-up match. Davis said the defeats hurt the players and they are ambitious to make amends when the real action starts in Belfast.

“They wanted to win both pre-season games, and there's a real frustration and angst,” said Davis. “Even coming in this morning, the guys were a bit spiky because we lost on Friday night, because we felt we could have won the game.

“They represent the club, they represent their families, the city and Scottish rugby, and they take that on board really seriously. They weren't pleased with aspects of the game against Harlequins, and they want to put that right against Ulster.

“Whether we get the win or not is up in the air, because they're a very well-coached team and a good team. But we're going to go and give it a crack. And I think there'll be a real difference in terms of what the guys and what the fans and what the journalists and supporters can see visually out on the field.”

Injury update

Edinburgh will have to do it without some key players. Pierre Schoeman, the Scotland and Lions loosehead, is not yet available and the match has come too soon for Dylan Richardson and Marshall Sykes, who are recovering from groin and shoulder injuries, respectively.

Ben Muncaster joined the lengthy injury list after damaging his ankle against Quins while Harry Paterson (also ankle) and Mosese Tuipulotu (head) were also casualties at the Stoop. Muncaster has been ruled out of the Ulster game while Paterson and Tuipulotu are rated 50-50.

The likes of Duhan van der Merwe, Grant Gilchrist, Ben Vellacott, Wes Goosen and Luke Crosbie had already been ruled out.

Davis believes Edinburgh’s squad is large enough to cope. He said they had used 56 players across the two pre-season matches and had seen a step up in intensity from the first game to the second.

Need for speed

“What I've learned is that it takes time to build combinations and build continuity,” said the Aussie. “But I think over the two games there's been a step up from the Ulster game to the game against Harlequins. I think there was a step up in intensity and performance in that match in particular, so I feel we're tracking in the right direction. The sword's definitely got sharper for round one at the URC.”

Everitt wants Edinburgh to play with more speed this season, both in attack and defence, and Davis thinks the signs are promising.

“You would have seen passages in the Harlequins game where we moved the ball at speed,” he said. “We saw some cracking tries. We want to have speed of ball at the breakdown.

“We want to be fast in defence, off the line. Everything about us so far has been trying to pitch how fast we can be. That's just not with ball in hand. It's how fast we can be to set up, how fast we can be to get back into position and keep challenging the opposition both sides of the ball.”