SPECULATION is mounting that Rory Sutherland and Duhan Van der Merwe are close to agreeing deals to return to Edinburgh after their current club, Worcester Warriors, were suspended from all competitions by the RFU and put into administration.
Speaking from Cape Town, where Edinburgh are preparing for Saturday’s URC match against the Stormers, assistant coach Stevie Lawrie said: “It’s a really tough situation and it wouldn’t be right for me to comment on any speculation, because I just don’t know. For me, my thoughts are with the staff and the players there – my feelings go out to them, because it appears to be a pretty tough and dire situation.”
However, Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair revealed at the end of last month that he would be interested in signing winger Van der Merwe and prop Sutherland if they became available – and in another Scottish international prop, Murray McCallum, who is also on Worcester’s books. “We do have a little bit of budget left for emergencies, injuries and what have you,” Blair said then. “If players become available then we’ll have to see how that fits with what we want.”
Scotland Under-20s’ Six Nations schedule confirmed
Super6 round seven: TOL team of the week
Premiership Dream Team for weekend of 24th September
Edinburgh may have to settle for signing one or both of Sutherland and Van der Merwe on loan, at least until the end of the season with a view to a more permanent deal. With the World Cup now just a year away, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, for one, will be keen to ensure that the pair return to playing regular rugby as quickly as possible rather than waiting to learn if and when Worcester will be readmitted to competition. And he won’t want them disappearing to play club rugby in France where their game time will not be managed as it is at home.
Worcester have debts of around £25million, including back taxes of £6m, and face relegation from the Premiership as a penalty for going into administration even if they find new investors to get them playing again. Their planned pre-season friendly against Glasgow in Inverness at the start of this month was called off as their financial woes worsened.
Meanwhile, Lawrie offered a positive prognosis when asked for an update on his squad’s injury list following their 33-31 defeat by the Bulls in Pretoria last week. Mark Bennett, Luke Crosbie and Jaco van der Walt all sustained head injuries in that game and must complete their return-to-play protocols before being cleared to play against the champions. Grant Gilchrist cut a hand, Blair Kinghorn was ruled out before kick-off by a stomach bug and Chris Dean was injured during the warm-up.
Kinghorn, in particular, appears to have a good chance of taking the field against the Stormers. “Blair was a short-term overnight thing, so he’s been back in training this week, which has been great for the group,” Lawrie added.
“Most of the guys are in good health. Gilco got a wee slice to his hand, but he was back in doing bits and bobs of training on Tuesday – so we’re monitoring him, but he was running around well.”
Edinburgh only lost to the Bulls when full-back Henry Immelman was off target with a last-gasp penalty, and they played some excellent rugby at times. However, they took a while to get going and showed some obvious failings at times, leading Lawrie to warn that they will need to be more consistent this weekend.
“There were times when the pack was very dominant, but then a couple of times towards the end there were key moments that slipped away from us,” he said. “Our ability to continually apply pressure on the opposition would be the other thing we have spoken about constantly.”
I really feel for all at Worcester but mainly those doing the jobs in the background and the young players just starting out. I look on at the English premiership with awe and disdain in equal measure. It’s a great competitive product with big crowds and quality players. The club over Union approach means they are reliant on rich benefactors who are happy to lose money (very few clubs turn a profit). It does mean you need to roll the dice to try and get success and if you get a couple of cowboys then your club could quickly go under. Not just that but they’ll also try and strip the best assets such as the land. McCallum, Sutherland and DVM will hopefully have no problems getting another club and it would be great to see them back up here even if only on a loan deal.
Sutherland is being chased by Ulster and Bath according to reports, I would have hoped VdM and Sutherland would be chased by Glasgow or Edinburgh but it seems not to be the case.
Perhaps Mr. Barnes might have heard something, or anyone else with knowledge please?
The real surprise is that Saracens aren’t being linked with any of Worcester’s top players bearing in mind there is a salary cap in the English Premiership which would presumably rule out most clubs but hasn’t applied to Saracens for many years.
It would be excellent news for Edinburgh, however I read that the pair of Shysters [my opinion not this platforms] that are involved have the players contracts in a separate company that has not been put into administration hence the suggestion that the players can’t change Clubs or look for a new employment without the Owners permission.
Personally I would say ‘take me to Court with whatever Company you are hiding behind and see how far you get.’ There also seems to be a way around it if they serve notice of two weeks from the failure to receive their money.
Fingers crossed we get them back to Edinburgh or Glasgow either is fine from my point of view.
VDM would be a magnificent signing for Edinburgh, Boffelli Graham VDM as a back 3 would be absolutely spot on.
I know its great for Edinburgh. But Worcester are near extinction to make this happen. Not great news. Rugby as a commercial enterprise is fragile in comparison to others. That’s quite clear.
Wow – if it happens that would be 2 awesome additions to the team! Add those guys plus the return of Boffelli and we will have an incredible squad!!