RORY SUTHERLAND says Edinburgh's returning World Cup players will be pushed all the way for their starting places in Guinness PRO12 action over the coming weeks.
The 23-year-old loosehead prop, was called into Scotland’s World Cup party last Friday as cover for Ryan Grant and experienced a whirlwind 48-hours with Vern Cotter’s men which culminated in a traumatic defeat at the hands of Australia on Sunday.
Sutherland and scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne are set to return for Edinburgh when they travel to Italy to face Zebre on Saturday as Alan Solomons’ men look to make it five league wins from five.
WP Nel, Ross Ford, Alasdair Dickinson, David Denton, Matt Scott and new recruit John Hardie have been given a couple of weeks off to recover from their World Cup efforts.
They are likely to be able to play for Edinburgh on November 7 at home to Munster – but Sutherland, who has played three club matches already this term, does not expect them to walk into the team.
“Boys are going to struggle to get back into the team to play. We have shown incredible strength in depth in the squad this past four games and in pre-season, so it is going to be tough for the boys to get back in,” Sutherland stated. “The Edinburgh camp is really positive at the minute. The boys are building up confidence, as you do when you win a number of games on the trot.
“Beating Romania and Ulster in pre-season really helped as did beating Leinster in the first week of the PRO12 and we have kicked on from there. Training is going well, there is a positive attitude about the place and the boys are firing on all cylinders.”
As for the expeditious nature of his call-up to the Scotland set-up, the uncapped Sutherland said: “There were a lot of mixed emotions – when I first got the phone call on Friday I must have paced the house for 15 minutes wondering what to do, but it was exciting to get the call.
“It gives me a lot of confidence to know that I am on the edge of the Scotland squad and it also makes me hungrier for another taste of what it is like.”
Meanwhile, Glasgow Warriors’ head coach Gregor Townsend will this afternoon name his squad to face Leinster away tomorrow night.
Most of his Scotland players will still be unavailable, but the likes of Kevin Bryce and Duncan Weir may feature.
One player who will not feature in PRO12 action this weekend is Nick Crosswell. The Newport Gwent Dragons forward was yesterday found guilty by a disciplinary committee of landing two punches on an unnamed Warriors player during last weekend's match between the sides and has been banned for three weeks.
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