Edinburgh’s senior players warned that time is running out

Sean Everitt has warned that time is running out for some senior players at Edinburgh if they are to achieve their goal of helping the club win silverware.

The head coach was left frustrated by the manner of the 36-30 defeat by the Sharks in South Africa on Saturday which saw his team eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup.

Everitt, who has confirmed he has spoken to Magnus Bradbury about a potential return to Edinburgh, is looking at a number of players to freshen up his squad for next season. They are still in with a shout in the United Rugby Championship in the current campaign but are ninth and need to finish in the top eight to make the play-offs. They host the Scarlets on Saturday.

The coach is becoming increasingly exasperated with the number of penalties his team are conceding and warned there would be consequences for what he called “repeat offenders”. Edinburgh gave away as many as ten in the second half against the Sharks who came back from 16-14 down at the interval to win.

“The disappointing part of it was how we lost the game,” said Everitt. “We gave the opportunities to the Sharks with ill discipline on our side and we’ve got to take responsibility for that as individuals and as a team. If you concede 10 penalties in the second half you’re not going to win the game at 16-14 at half-time.”

Everitt, who arrived in the summer from South Africa to take over at Edinburgh, has carried himself with an assured calmness but spoke frankly yesterday about the team’s struggle to put together an 80-minute performance.

“I think the players in the changing room are maybe aware they’re not achieving what they should,” he said. “They’ve certainly had opportunities and that’s why I say it was so disappointing on Saturday because they were so close to achieving something probably not a lot of people had given us hope of.

“With the player group that we have and the responsibilities that we have, and some of the players knowing that they are coming to the end of their careers, time is running out.

“We did speak about that last week. We say we want to win something then you get yourselves into a position and you say ‘don’t worry, we’ll do it next year’ but your career is very short and sometimes you run out of time. So I think it’s a good opportunity to get that right now.

“There’s always been player responsibility but if you’ve run out of options and you’re not getting a reaction then you have to be more severe on the consequences.”

With the departure of the long-serving Bill Mata at the end of the season already announced, Everitt confirmed he was looking to recruit in the back row. Asked if he had spoken to Bradbury, who left Edinburgh for Bristol in 2022, the coach said: “Yes. We have spoken to a number of players. It’s just whether they are available or not and if they want to accept the opportunity here.”