Edinburgh Rugby get good and bad injury news on Scotland players as they await scan result

The club are awaiting the results of a scan to determine the seriousness of the injury, the latest setback in what has been a disrupted campaign for the international centre.

Currie tore his hamstring in the summer and had to withdraw from Scotland’s summer Pacific tour as a result. He was then affected by vertigo and missed the first three months of the season, only making his return in the Champions Cup defeat by Castres in France.

He played five consecutive games for Edinburgh before pulling up in the win over Gloucester on Friday night.

Van der Merwe injury update

“Matt obviously did his hamstring,” said Scott Mathie, Edinburgh’s attack coach. “He went for a scan today [Monday]. We haven't found out [the results] yet but he obviously won't be playing this weekend.”

There was better news on winger Duhan van der Merwe who also had to go off against Gloucester, with a calf complaint.

“Duhan looks like he'll be alright,” added Mathie. “We're just waiting to see. He didn't train today but that's precautionary.”

Van der Merwe has struggled to get into games for Edinburgh at times this season and has scored just one try for the club in seven outings. It seems a scant return for one of the most prolific wingers in world rugby although injuries have played their part, with van der Merwe also being affected by a hip problem.

“I'm sure he wants to put together a string of games because when he's on the field and he's firing, we know what we've got,” said Mathie. “I think Duhan is probably best to answer about his frustrations.”

The assistant coach believes Edinburgh are improving in terms of the number of chances they are creating for their wide men, although Darcy Graham was also frustrated in the Gloucester game.

Yielded a bit of fruit

“It's like anything, I think,” said Mathie. “When one of the parts of our game isn't going how we expect, we just devote a bit more time to it. I think over the last two to three weeks we've probably invested a bit more time into the attack. It's definitely paid dividends.

“We're starting to create a lot more opportunities. We're starting to get a lot more touches into our backs which has been positive. It's definitely yielded a bit of fruit.”

It’s all to play for on the final weekend of pool games in the Champions Cup, with Edinburgh currently in second place in Pool 2, one point behind leaders Bath. Behind the top two, Toulon, Munster, Gloucester and Castres all remain in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout phase, with the first four in each pool progressing to the round of 16.

Edinburgh won both their home games with a bonus point, beating Toulon and Gloucester, but in between they lost heavily to Castres in France. A win on Friday over English champions Bath would guarantee their place in the last 16 but a defeat would see them waiting anxiously for the results of the two Saturday games in Pool 2, Munster v Castres and Gloucester v Toulon.

“It’s exciting,” said Mathie. “I think at the start if we’d said this is the situation we're in, I think we'd have been really happy. We got two bonus-point wins at home and now this massive challenge. But it's an exciting challenge.”