Club: Edinburgh
Last season: 8th
Odds for the title: 33/1
Season opener: away v Leinster, 22 September
Ins
Augusto Allori (Treviso), Sean Crombie, Nick de Luca, Ryan Grant, Craig Hamilton, Calum MacRae, Scott Newlands, Mark Robertson, Ciaran Beattie (all Borders), David Blair (Sale), Ben Gissing (Calvisano), John Houston (Heriots), Andrew Maxwell (Ulster), Ben Meyer (Counties Manukau), Ian Nimmo (Leicester), Roland Reid (Boland), Andrew Turnbull (Rotherham)
Outs
Chris Bentley (Tasman), Rob Dewey (Ulster), Alasdair Dickinson, Chris Paterson, Alasdair Strokosch (all Gloucester), Dougie Hall (Glasgow), Peter Jorgensen, Lucio Lopez Fleming, Fergus Pringle, John Senio, Steven Turnbull, Alastair Warnock (all released), Scott Murray, Mike Pyke (both Montauban), Simon Taylor (Stade Francais)
The coach preview
Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat discusses how the Scottish outfit are going to be with a hectic summer behind them
Stephen Larkham signs; 17 other new players join him; current coach is out; club leaves the SRU; club gets kicked out of Murrayfield; club comes back to the SRU; club returns to Murrayfield; new coaching team appointed; Stephen Larkham doesn’t sign after all; 15 players leave the club – that’s one hell of a summer!
It’s been turbulent, you could say that. But at least we’re now getting on to the rugby! I think the players have basically just got on with the job they’re paid to do which is train and play rugby and, from that front, it’s been a really good pre-season. It’s been a long pre-season too as the season has started later and that’s a plus point for us. What’s happened in the past has been really unfortunate, but we’ve just got to get on with it.
But it must have had some impact on the dressing room?
I don’t know. But I would say that we’ve got a lot of new players and I don’t think it had the same impact as it would’ve if we’d had largely the same squad as the past couple of seasons. And the internationals were more or less kept away from it too because they were with Scotland although they did get dragged into a bit. I guess we’ll only see the true impact of it all when the World Cup is over and everyone comes back. Edinburgh will be fully rebuilt then.
Lynn Howells also left during the close season, that upsets things doesn’t it?
I think it’s unfortunate what happened to Lynn Howells – he’s a good, honest man. A good rugby man. But we felt there needed to be some change at Edinburgh and, if you look at the way they’ve performed in the past, you could say that they’ve underperformed considering the players they’ve had. And so there’s been a drastic change, maybe too much, we’ll see how it works out…
And Stephen Larkham, we were all so excited. What happened?
I better watch what I say, but it is unfortunate – I think he would have been a good signing.
How are you going to get fans excited after all of this?
We have to perform on the pitch. If we perform on the pitch, I’m not saying they’ll forget about Stephen Larkham, but they’ll at least come and watch. We played Tonga in pre-season and we used 27 or 28 players and we could’ve – and maybe should’ve – won the game and people saw a lot of spirit in the side. If people see that and see what good, young players we’ve got they’ll come back.
Which youngsters in particular?
We’ve got a young boy called Ben Cairns playing at number 13; the boy Nick de Luca and Calum MacRae from the Borders – these guys are on the fringe of the Scotland squad right now.
Are you confident after all that’s happened that you can improve on last season?
I think we always knew this year was going to be tough in Europe for us but the Magners League is where we’ll judge ourselves. Everybody goes on about the players that have left but we’ve still got quality players here. People forget that some of our players – such as Simon Webster, Hugo Southwell, Allister Hogg, Mike Blair – have actually extended their contracts. Some players left that we didn’t want to go, but we’ve brought in some good, overseas boys that maybe people just don’t know much about…
Nonetheless, Chris Paterson leaves a big hole doesn’t he?
I know Chris very well and he does leave a hole and, in particular, with goalkicking. We’ve always had a top-class goalkicker and now we’ve got three guys who are good goalkickers but we’ll have to see how they are under pressure. The problem with Chris was always about where to play him? Arguably he should’ve always played ten, but we [initially] signed Stephen Larkham so it wasn’t as if he thought he was going to play there next year. And, while you never want anyone to leave your country, he had been here eight years and it’s for natural for somebody to want to try a different environment.
So, aims for the season?
I don’t like to just talk about being competitive, we want to finish as high as we possibly can. Top four in the Magners League we’re aiming for.
Supporters’ prediction: 6th. “Probably a bit optimistic to be honest but it’s been a typical SRU disaster at Edinburgh. Hopes were so high when Larkham signed but now it’s all looking horribly grim. Need the young boys to shine.” James Freeman, Stirling
Rucked prediction: 8th. Even then we fancy Connacht or Dragons to catch them. Losing so many key players is going to be tough on Edinburgh. They never made it even with the likes of Paterson, Scott Murray and Simon Taylor, so who knows what’s going to happen with them this term.