As Edinburgh prepare to face the Lions in Friday's United Rugby Championship match, head coach Sean Everitt believes the South African side have shown "tremendous courage and bravery" following the death of team-mate Hyron Andrews.

And Everitt expects them to continue to "celebrate" his life when the sides meet at the Hive.

The Lions second row, who Everitt coached during their time at South African club Sharks, died last Friday night, a day before Lions' Champions Cup match against La Rochelle. An autopsy found the 31-year-old died from natural causes.

Ivan van Rooyen's side went ahead with their European tie, a decision Everitt felt was the right thing to do, and were beaten 31-14 in France.

"As Ivan van Rooyen alluded to during the week, there's no manual for how you deal with tragedies like this within a team," said Everitt.

"I suppose you do have two choices. One, you can step back and spend time mourning and getting over it. The other way is to celebrate the life of Hyron and look at it live through his eyes and what he would have liked. I think the Lions have chosen to go that route, which is brilliant.

"They've shown tremendous courage and bravery to have got through that game on Saturday. It's really difficult to understand what the team went through this week.

"Every time there's a death, it puts life into perspective, doesn't it? It just shows you that life is fragile. You never know what's around the corner. It is upsetting to hear news like that, it's how you deal with it and how you obviously handle those emotions."

Edinburgh have confirmed the crowd at the Hive on Friday night will be asked to stand and applaud during the fifth minute of the match to pay tribute to Hyron, who wore the number five shirt.

Everitt's side go into this game leading the way at the top of the URC after three wins from three and Everitt says they've "fixed the wrongs" after their disappointing European challenge cup defeat by Toulon last Friday.

"The team's got a lot of confidence," said Everitt. "Obviously disappointed with our performance last Friday. It wasn't what we displayed in the first three weeks.

"I thought it was just inaccuracy in our performance all around.

"We have prepared well this week and we've fixed the wrongs and we're looking to put in a good performance and continue on the momentum that we've gained in the first three rounds."

While describing the Lions as a side who "thrive on the scraps of the game" but who have also "added to their depth", Everitt says Edinburgh intend to "focus on themselves."

"We've been putting in good performances in different areas, but never all at the same time," he added.

"That's always going to be our motivation and that's to focus on ourselves and put performances together that are going to make the game enjoyable and certainly good to watch.

"I don't believe that we're there yet and we're just looking from week to week to get better and grow."