Inter-city switch could see Glasgow Warriors man play for Edinburgh in 1872 Cup

On the surface there is nothing out of the ordinary about a promising player being given an opportunity in these circumstances. But what makes this an unusual case is that Ventisei, 20, is a Glasgow Warriors player who has joined Edinburgh on loan.

He now finds himself on the cusp of making his professional debut against his parent club while playing for their oldest rivals.

Ventisei captained Scotland Under-20 at the World U20 Championships last summer and played for Emerging Scotland against a Tonga XV at Scotstoun last month. He has been part of Glasgow's academy set-up for the last couple of years and has been involved in Warriors’ pre-season games in the last two seasons, featuring against Zebre and Northampton Saints. But he has not played a competitive game for the club who are well served by centres, including Scotland trio Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones and Stafford McDowall.

He recently moved to the capital side on loan and was Edinburgh's 24th man in last Saturday's 1872 Cup first leg at Hampden.

Three more added to the injury list

Glasgow ran out 24-12 winners and the defeat came at a further cost to Edinburgh in terms of injuries. Ewan Ashman and Piers O'Conor both failed HIAs in the first half and had to be replaced and Duhan van der Merwe took a bang on the hip in the second half and was also substituted.

Edinburgh's injury toll stood at 17 players before the match at Hampden and having three more added to the list has pushed them into full-blown crisis mode. They have been hit particularly hard in the centre, with O'Conor now joining James Lang, Mosese Tuipulotu, Charlie McCaig and Findlay Thomson in the sick bay.

“Decimated” was the word used by Sean Everitt but the Edinburgh head coach is at least comforted by the recent return of Matt Currie after six months out with vertigo.

“There won't be anyone rested this week, put it that way,” Everitt said ruefully. “Obviously, we've got quite a lot of injuries in the midfield, and sometimes injuries hit you in the same place. It's been the case since I've been here, whether it be in the back three or the midfield or in the second row.

“Piers O'Conor is out now. Piers has been involved in every game that we've played, whether it be at 13 or 12.

“We've had Charlie McCaig who played five minutes in the warm-up game against Ulster [during which he sustained a season-ending knee injury]. We've got Mosese Tuipulotu, who's out [also with a knee injury]. We've got James Lang that's out [with a shoulder injury].

“And obviously Matt Currie that's returning. So we've been decimated in the midfield. [But] we've got options, believe it or not.”

Ventisei has only just moved along the M8 from Scotstoun but Everitt admitted he could come into contention to play against Glasgow at Murrayfield this weekend.

More than 30,000 tickets sold

“He's definitely an option,” said Everitt. “Obviously, we've got Matt Davidson back [from the Scotland Sevens programme]. Matt Davidson had trained with us in the pre-season, and he was involved in the URC warm-up games as well. And he took part in the game against Cardiff off the bench. So it made sense to bring him straight back in after his two sevens tournaments because he's familiar.

“Johnny only joined us the Friday before. He's a youngster, and he's still learning our calls now and our systems. So he might be a candidate to be in the 23 this week. He's on a loan until the end of January.”

In each of the last two seasons Edinburgh have bounced back from a first leg defeat in the 1872 Cup by beating Glasgow narrowly at Murrayfield. Everitt will work with his players this week in the hope of making it three in a row.

“We'll still have our three sessions of preparation, as we normally do,” he said. “We just shuffle the days differently so that the players can be with their families on Christmas Day, which is a Thursday this year, so it does make it a little bit more difficult.

“It doesn't change how we're going to prepare and train. We'll still have the same amount of hours. We need some time to sort out a few things, as we spoke about earlier, but we’re looking forward to Christmas week.”

Edinburgh have sold more than 30,000 tickets for Saturday’s match and are hopeful of breaking the attendance record for the fixture which was set last season when 40,063 saw the capital side beat Glasgow 10-7.