Marfo moves north on one-year deal

Darryl Marfo has joined Edinburgh Rugby on a one-year deal from Bath.

The 26-year-old prop made three appearances for the English Premiership side after joining in January, having previously plied his trade at London Welsh and Harlequins.

Born in London, Marfo qualifies to play for Scotland through his Ayrshire-born mother.

He told www.edinburghrugby. org: “I’m massively excited to be joining Edinburgh.

“The Edinburgh front row is talked about in such high regard in rugby circles, so it’s great to have the opportunity to be around those guys.

“Hopefully I can contribute towards making that unit stronger.

“It seems to be a really exciting time at the club and I can’t wait to get cracking.” Scotland captain John Barclay warned his team they must step up a level if they are to have any hope of claiming a win in Australia today.

Gregor Townsend began his reign as the national head coach with a 34-13 victory over Italy in Singapore last weekend, but they face a much tougher test of their credentials when they run out against the Wallabies at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney.

There were some moments of magic against the Italians, including four tries in a 10-minute spell, but Barclay knows they will need to raise their game in many other areas.

“We have to get better across the board really,” he said, as the team wrapped up their final preparations for the match against the Wallabies.

“We did some OK things, some good things last week, though it is hard to analyse the game too much because the conditions were unique.

“We need to look after the ball a lot better and, defensively, Australia will pose a much bigger challenge because they move the ball very well and have got skilful players.

“We will have to be a lot more astute, a lot more switched on and a lot more physical to deal with them.

“They play a bit differently to Northern Hemisphere teams. They run from everywhere, that is the way they play rugby over here. It must be fun to play, but it presents a challenge for us to try to stop them.

“(Australia coach) Michael Cheika did that when he was in charge at Leinster and you can see the influence he had there – they play a very similar brand.”

The last two matches between Australia and Scotland have both seen the Dark Blues score three tries but lose by a single point.

With that record, Barclay believes they can be confident of scoring but warned the big improvements must come in defence against a side of natural ball-handlers.

“You can see the lifestyle – it is all outdoors, there are so many sports people can play, league, AFL, union,” said Barclay.

“That helps with the way they played the game. They are all very comfortable ball-in-hand.

“The ball will be fast so we are going to try to slow it down – every team does. If you look at the game in the autumn, then we did that very well, we turned them over a lot, but it is a big challenge.”

Scotland have most of their frontline forwards available, but are missing many of their backs through either injury or selection for the British and Irish Lions.

And Barclay feels the real test for Townsend’s side is for the new-look back division to show the same threat that Scotland have started to take for granted.

“Ali Price has played very well, Finn (Russell) has obviously been there for a while as has Alex Dunbar in the centre. Duncan Taylor was arguably our back of the season the year before last,” Barclay said..

“I have watched the Glasgow games and Lee Jones has been one of their best players. It’s a different team but there is more quality in depth now and it’s great for these guys to have a go.

“Last week Damien Hoyland had a really good game and was keen to impress. I think he played great but Lee has got a chance this week and I’m sure he’ll give it a go.

“This is a big step up, this is the big league. We are playing in Australia’s backyard and it will be pretty busy against one of the top teams in the world. We understand how big the challenge is.”

Australia, however, have dismissed any suggestion they are expected to win easily.

“That perception is a couple of years old,” said backs coach Stephen Larkham.

“They have played some really good football, they have scared us over the last couple of years. They won three out of five in the Six Nations and beat Italy last week by a good margin.

“They are a good team, under-rated as an international side, definitely. I like what they are doing.”