'The right choices': Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt defends decision to rest players after Bath thrashing

Captain Magnus Bradbury, Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman, back-three regular Wes Goosen and this season’s breakthrough player Liam McConnell were all left out of the squad for the match against the English champions.

Bath outscored the visitors by nine tries to one to win Pool 2 and seal a home tie in the round of 16. Edinburgh must now wait for the outcome of the other matches in the group to discover their fate.

On Saturday, Munster will take on Castres in Limerick while Gloucester host Toulon. If Toulon win at Kingsholm then Edinburgh will be guaranteed the top-four place they need to qualify for the last 16. But different combinations of results could also see them pushed down into fifth place which would mean dropping into the second-tier Challenge Cup.

Everitt said it was not a scenario they were contemplating as he explained his decision to rest players.

‘I still believe that we've made the right choices’

“I would like to have fielded our best team tonight, if we didn't have injuries, and obviously didn't feel that the players needed rest,” said Everitt, who signed a two-year contract extension this week. “I still believe that we've made the right choices. We've rested four players in a squad of 43, so that shouldn't make a big difference.

“But when you've got the injury list that we have, it does make it difficult. I still believe that players should be rested but I think I'd rather look at the injury list rather than resting players because that's got to happen regardless.”

Edinburgh have 17 players out injured currently and Everitt insisted that player welfare had to take priority. He said if he hadn’t rested the players against Bath he would have had to have done so in the URC game with Bulls at Hive Stadium next week.

“Well, you've got a choice with players, so if I'd have played them this week, then I would have to rest them next week,” said the coach.

“So it was one of those things that I expect Ben Muncaster to replace Magnus Bradbury very well. And by the way, Ben was really good tonight. I would expect him to do as well as a Scottish international and he played ahead of Maggie [for Scotland] in the summer series. So I don't think that was a big difference.

“You saw how good Harry Paterson was tonight, coming in for Wes Goosen, and who knows, Harry might have played ahead of Wes had he not been rested.

“Pierre Schoeman was a miss, but I thought James Whitcombe got better as the game went on, so it was a good experience for him. Tom Dodd [who played in place of McConnell] has performed well for us. What I'm trying to say, I don't think that was the reason [for the heavy defeat].”

Everitt said Edinburgh were one of a number of clubs to rest players in the Champions Cup.

“I don't rest players to win the following week. I rest players because of their well-being, and we need to look after the players,” he said. “I don't think there's many players that can play 10 weeks in a row without resting and not suffering the consequence from it. At the end of the day, there is a lot of rugby to be played.

‘We’re not the only team to rest players’

“We're not the only team that has rested players in away games. That's happened across the competition. You saw the Stormers last week against the Harlequins resting players. The Bulls haven't gone full noise tonight as well. All the franchises need to look after their players, not just Edinburgh.”

Piers O’Conor finished a fine move for Edinburgh in the first half and Ross Thompson converted and added a penalty but they were the only bright spots as Bath scored through Thomas du Toit, a penalty try, Beno Obano, Tom Dunn, Joe Cokanasiga (two), Ben Spencer, Henry Arundell and Max Ojomoh. Finn Russell converted eight from eight.

Injury worry for Scotland hooker

“I think the fundamental errors that we made without being under pressure took its toll, and against a team that has a lot of power like Bath,” added Everitt. “I think we could have been more accurate with ball in hand. We gave away an intercept try and then knocked on and they scored from the turnover. With those backs, they're lethal and they punished us for the errors that we made.”

Ewan Ashman, the Scotland hooker, had to come off injured in the first half.

“Ewan Ashman's got a neck spasm,” said Everitt. “I'm not quite sure where it happened on the field, but we'll have to assess him and see how he is for next week.”