Blair backs Moyano to hit heights

MIKE BLAIR has tipped new signing Ramiro Moyano to help fill the gap left by British and Irish Lions winger Duhan van der Merwe at Edinburgh. Moyano will make his competitive debut for the capital men against the DHL Stormers today and Edinburgh coach Blair has high hopes for the Argentine international, who joined the club this season after two years at Toulon. The winger has been capped 36 times and started in the 14-9 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield in November 2018, as well as featuring in the 2019 World Cup. Moyano, who can also play at full-back, is one of seven changes following Edinburgh’s United Rugby Championship loss to Benetton last weekend. ‘He’s an exciting player,’ said Blair. ‘He played for Argentina two years ago and scored a try against New Zealand. ‘He’s had some injury issues and didn’t get a huge amount of rugby at Toulon but we saw a bit of him in one pre-season game. It was a difficult one for him because he’d only literally arrived in Edinburgh on the Monday and we had him playing on the Saturday. ‘Since then he’s trained well so we’re really looking forward to seeing what he can do.’ Blair admitted it was tough trying to replace Van der Merwe, who joined Worcester in the summer, but was happy with the players he had competing for the No11 jersey Moyano will wear against the Stormers. ‘We have Ramiro and we’ve got Emiliano Boffelli coming back after the November internationals,’ said Blair. ‘We also have Damien Hoyland and Jack Blain, so there are options.’

EDINBURGH v STORMERS (kick-off: 5.15pm, live on Premier Sports 1). EDINBURGH: Immelman; Graham, Lang, Hutchison, Moyano; Van der Walt, Vellacott; Schoeman, Cherry, de Bruin, Sykes, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Crosbie, Mata.