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united-rugby-championship
Edinburgh have disregarded considerations over Scotland wingers Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham after each suffered harm scares a fortnight out from their opening autumn Take a look at in opposition to the USA.
Van der Merwe scored the primary of Edinburgh’s seven tries in a thumping 43-0 URC win over Benetton on Friday however limped off 4 minutes into the second half.
Graham, in the meantime, gave the impression to be struggling after banging his knee as he went as much as problem for a excessive ball within the twenty fifth minute.
He twice acquired therapy earlier than gingerly re-entering the fray, just for a weaving run from deep to go away him needing extra consideration from the medics, who this time utilized heavy strapping to his proper knee.
The tenacious Borderer not solely carried on however delivered a superb end in the proper nook simply earlier than half-time, receiving ice therapy on his knee on the interval.
Graham, who has 31 tries in 47 Tests, one behind Van der Merwe’s 32 (in 49 Tests) at the top of Scotland’s all-time list, re-emerged for the second half and ended the game on a high, scorching onto Ben Vellacott’s pass on halfway to race away for his second try of the night, and third of the new campaign.
“Darcy got a knee-on-knee in the game,” said Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt. “At this stage, it doesn’t look like there’s any soft tissue [damage], otherwise I’m sure the medics would have pulled him off. We’ll monitor him. But he got through and scored a great try at the end, so he looks OK.
“That’s the nature of the guy. He doesn’t like to come off. He is tough. He enjoys his rugby as well. He couldn’t wait to get on the field tonight to play at home. It’s hard to get him off, but we listen to the medics.”
Asked how his knee was feeling after the game, Graham told Premier Sports. “Obviously I tweaked it early on, but it seems to be alright. I just needed five minutes to run it off and then a bit of ice on it at half-time – good as new.”
As for Van der Merwe, Everitt said the giant winger was withdrawn after suffering a bruised heel.
“We’ll take a look at that on Monday,” he said. “It’s not the first time we’ve had bruised heels. Darcy struggled with that last year as well. But we hope that he’ll be good to go next week [against Cardiff].
“Duhan scored a great try. It just shows when you get the ball in his hands with a bit of space, it’s really good. That was our plan today. If we could get the ball into the 15s, we’d have an opportunity against them.”
After agonising defeats in their opening two URC matches away at Zebre and Munster, both aspect of their first dwelling sport of the season in opposition to Ulster being postponed throughout Storm Amy, Edinburgh took loads of dwelling consolation from their return to Hive Stadium with a cushty bonus-point victory.
Cammy Scott, making solely his second begin at 10 and his first for almost two years, impressed in assault and defence earlier than being compelled off with an HIA after 47 minutes following a no-arms sort out from Malakai Fekitoa, which earned the Benetton centre a yellow card. Scott didn’t return and can be unavailable for subsequent week’s journey to Cardiff.
Fellow half-back Charlie Shiel additionally impressed in a uncommon begin at scrum-half, his first since January.
“Charlie received a possibility and I believed his box-kicking was excellent,” Everitt added. “He managed the sport exceptionally properly in opposition to a crew that desires to strangle you.
“Generally with all of the ball that you just obtain through kicks, you are inclined to overplay. However we caught to our plan. Cammy [Scott] was sturdy defensively with Fekitoa working at him a lot of the night.
“He stood his floor exceptionally properly and that’s considered one of his strengths. He’s grown from 12 months to 12 months since I’ve been right here. I’m simply so glad that we may give him a begin within the place that he enjoys.”
