Edinburgh Rugby have an unusual problem to solve - but long injury list set to shorten

In the 24-12 defeat at Hampden, for example, the Warriors attack was held up over the visitors’ line several times. And in the 21-3 loss at Murrayfield a week later, it was only in the closing minutes that Glasgow clinched the victory with two tries to add to their solitary first-half touchdown.

"I thought the guys defended well, again,” head coach Sean Everitt said following the latter match.

They did.

“You can’t fault the effort from the lads in defence,” was the verdict from centre James Lang after that game.

You can’t.

But everything is relative. And the fact remains that over those two games, Edinburgh conceded a total of seven tries.

Yes, that tally would have been a lot worse if it had not been for the determination and defiance shown by the Edinburgh players when deep inside their own half. But the defence was surely impressive primarily because of the contrast with the almost total toothlessness of the attack.

It is unusual to find such an imbalance between offence and defence, especially in a team which at times carries real bite in attack. And how to get rid of that imbalance - especially away from the Hive - is arguably the key task facing Everitt and his assistants as we approach the second half of the URC season. Edinburgh are currently 11th, and face a demanding fixture at Benetton on Saturday.

Clearly, if they can keep possession for longer, that will ease some of the pressure on them defensively. But defence coach Michael Todd accepts that work needs to be done on both sides of the ball.

“I think it’s a balance,” he said on Tuesday. “From a defensive point of view, if we were the best in the comp we wouldn’t be conceding that many tries. We can be better in certain areas, there’s no doubt about that.

“Can we apply a bit more pressure on the other side of the ball? It all complements each other, and the less time Glasgow would have had attacking us, it would have been a bit easier.

“In the second game against Glasgow we did a lot right that we wanted to try and execute. We just weren’t accurate. We had our opportunities, and we were playing one of the best teams in the competition.”

One piece of good news as we head into 2026 is that the team’s worryingly long injury list is likely to shorten before Saturday. Ewan Ashman and Piers O’Conor should both be back to face Benetton after missing the second Glasgow match with concussion - “they’ve been through their protocol and they’ve been looking positive so far”, Todd said of the hooker and centre. And Duhan van der Merwe and Boan Venter could also return after injury ruled them out of the second leg.

Dylan Richardson is a doubt after picking up a rib injury in that match, but Todd believes that he, Van der Merwe and Venter are all still in with a shout. “They’re all training and getting their stuff done,” he said. “It’s just whether or not they’ll get over the line and be ready to go on the weekend.”