Where Edinburgh Rugby need to improve to salvage South Africa URC mini-tour

Sean Everitt’s side have shipped 94 points and 14 tries in their last two games and are now languishing in 13th place in the United Rugby Championship, 12 points adrift of the play-off places with five rounds remaining of the regular season.

They end their mini-tour of South Africa with a game against the Stormers this weekend and it looks like another daunting test for the Scottish visitors.

The Stormers are riding high in second place and have a formidable home record. They have not lost to a non-South African side at the DHL Stadium in the URC since Ospreys were victorious there in April 2024.

By contrast, Edinburgh’s only away win this season in any competition was by a single point, 15-14 against Benetton in Treviso in early January.

Manner of defeat a real cause for concern

The manner of Edinburgh’s loss to the Lions in Johannesburg was a real cause for concern. They trailed 35-0 at half-time and turned the ball over to their opponents 22 times over the course of the 80 minutes.

Sykes, the international second-row, knows a huge improvement is required if they are to pull off a shock result.

“We're under no illusion, we're under the cosh,” said the lock. “All we can focus on is delivering each week, and this week we'll be aiming for five points, and a first away win at the Stormers.

“The beauty of it is, they're a pretty similar team. We obviously turned over a lot of ball at the weekend, so there'll be a focus on our accuracy as a team. You've got to think of things that feed teams. I think what fed the Lions was obviously the amount of turnovers and free-flowing rugby they got to play.

“You'll see a different Edinburgh. We've had a really direct messaging in the week and that's something, as a playing group, we're taking the onus to deliver because the coaches can only tell you so much at the end of the day. We're the ones on the pitch so we need to go do it ourselves.”

Edinburgh have won only four of their 13 URC games this season and assistant coach Stevie Lawrie admitted this week that they were still struggling to find their identity in what is their third season under head coach Everitt. Sykes believes they are strong in the scrum and lineout but hinted they need to be mentally tougher.

The mental side is massive

“I'd say we're a dominant set-piece team,” said the Scotland forward. “That's something that I know gives the boys a lot of confidence. You saw that in aspects from the weekend, that we're a physical team that have got a lot of pride.

“I obviously know that there's moments on the weekend that weren't good enough, but you look back, say that Ulster match, that first half there, that's what we want to deliver.

“Like anything, the mental side of anything is massive. We all go to the gym, we all run around on the pitch, we all train, etc. A lot of it is up there [in your head].

“I can give you the main message straight off that Lions match was: don't go around pointing fingers at anyone. Look at yourself first, look at what you've done, look at your prep, look at how well we're going to prep this week for the Stormers. I think that's been the focus in the squad. As long as everyone's doing their job right, then hopefully that should all cohere together to create what we want to deliver.”