Edinburgh's hat-trick heroes

• 31 January 2022
• Features

Loosehead prop Boan Venter crossed the whitewash three times against the Ospreys to become the second front-row player (and 13th overall) to bag a hat-trick for Edinburgh in the professional era.

We look back at some of the other famous occasions a player has crossed the paint three times for the capital club:

Welsh Joy

Edinburgh’s first four hat-tricks all came in Wales, with back-rower Cammy Mather the first to score three-in-a-match for the club, against Caerphilly back in 1999. Winger Conan Sharman followed suit when he took home the match ball the same year, getting three against Neath at the Gnoll.

In fact, hat-tricks have come against Welsh opposition more than any other, with Boan Venter’s effort the sixth on record.

Visser on the charge

Only Tim Visser has managed multiple hat-tricks for the capital club. He picked up three in three seasons – all at BT Murrayfield Stadium. Visser’s first came against Ospreys in 2010 in a remarkable five-minute spell in a 33-17 win.

The Flying Dutchman hit three tries a year later in the seven-try thrashing of Italian side Aironi and again, in defeat to Munter in 2012 – with the Irish side winning 23-18 thanks to the boot of fly-half Ian Keatley.

Two-in-one

A player scoring three tries in a match is rare enough, but for lightening to strike twice in the same match is almost unheard of. Such a feat was achieved in 2016, against Timisoira Saracens, at Stadionul Dan Paltinisanu, Romania.

The capital club proved too powerful for the Romanian side, with Stuart McInally and Nasi Manu both thundering over three times for the visitors. Incidentally, McInally was the first front rower to score a hat-trick for Edinburgh, with Venter becoming the second on Saturday.

Bumper season

The 2019/20 season saw Edinburgh pick up three hat-tricks, all from different members of the backline but all at BT Murrayfield.

Mark Bennett kicked things off with a treble against Zebre, before Duhan van der Merwe matched the centre’s efforts against Scarlets a month later.

The headlines belonged to Darcy Graham, however, with the Hawick-man going one better to hit four tries in a champagne performance against Agen in the Challenge Cup.

Graham is the only player to have managed four in a match for the capital.

Full list of Edinburgh Rugby hat-trick scorers (professional era)