Edinburgh Rugby bring forward kick-off time of URC clash with Ulster to avoid worst of Storm Amy

Edinburgh Rugby have brought forward the kick-off time of their game against Ulster by an hour to avoid the worst of Storm Amy.

Sean Everitt’s men take on the Irish side at the Hive Stadium on Friday night in their second game of the United Rugby Championships.

The game, which was initially set to begin at 8pm, will now kick off at 7pm amid forecasts for heavy winds and stormy weather.

The decision was taken from both a safety and matchday experience perspective and will see gates open for general match ticket purchasers and hospitality guests at 6pm.

Work is now under way to put additional emphasis on internal spaces for supporters, with an enhanced offering in the Thistle Suite, where live music and games from the Fanzone will now take place, and hot food and refreshments will be served as normal.

Edinburgh Rugby managing director, Douglas Struth, said: “The safety and experience of our fans have been at the forefront of minds when making this difficult decision and, while it is obviously not ideal to be changing the kick off time on the eve of the game, it is done so with everyone’s best interests in mind.

“The change, while challenging, will allow us to stick far closer to the excellent experience we strive to deliver for our fans and we thank everyone coming to tomorrow’s game for their patience, understanding and support for our opening home game.”

Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium is not available for this fixture due to ongoing pitch remedial works.

Everitt has backed Edinburgh to deliver a positive response to their opening-day humbling away to Zebre when they host Ulster in their second United Rugby Championship match of the season on Friday.

The head coach explained that his team have been working hard this week “to improve our defence” after suffering a demoralising start to the campaign when they lost 31-28 to a side that finished second-bottom last term.

Everitt is confident Edinburgh can belatedly get up and running in the match against Ulster.

“It is frustrating because it’s not the start that we had planned and were hoping for,” the South African said on Thursday. “So what you’ve got to do is look to fix the defensive errors that we had for Friday.

“I’d rather those mistakes happen in round one than in round 16, so the guys are positive. We know that Edinburgh always fight back after disappointment. We’ve got a potential sell-out tomorrow night and the guys will want to do their supporters proud.

“It’s a very important game for us, any game at home is important. It’s about putting in a good performance and getting our points. We’re going into round two, but we need to accumulate points so that come at the end of round five, we’re sitting in a good position on the log.”

Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham goes straight into the starting XV after missing the beginning of the season as he recovered from an ankle injury sustained on British and Irish Lions duty. His fellow Lions Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman also start against Ulster after coming off the bench in Italy last weekend.

“It’s great to have Darcy back with his experience,” said Everitt. “He’s a world-class player, he’s very creative in his style of play, and he gives the team energy, so the team will take a lot of confidence out of having him on the right wing.”

Storm Amy has been upgraded to an amber weather alert with winds of up to 100mph set to pose a danger to life.

The first named storm of the season will hit Scotland on Friday, with three Met Office warnings coming into force, and will bring heavy rain and gusts of up to 100mph to the worst-affected areas in the north-west of the country.