TWO of the biggest criticisms of Edinburgh Rugby in recent seasons have been that the team lacked identity, and their home games at Murrayfield lacked atmosphere. They have already addressed the latter problem with the decision to move to Myreside from the turn of the year. They now believe they have an answer to the former issue, too, with the announcement that Grant Gilchrist and Stuart McInally will be joint captains this season.
Glasgow Warriors have already gone down the same road with the captaincy, having named Henry Pyrgos and Jonny Gray as co-leaders earlier this month. But Alan Solomons, Edinburgh’s head coach, explained yesterday that his decision had been based on an assessment of his own team’s needs rather than any eagerness to follow the lead set by Gregor Townsend, the Warriors’ head coach.
“The boys knew before they went on the break last season that they would be co-captains,” Solomons said at yesterday’s PRO12 launch in Dublin. “I have never spoken with Gregor about it. Gregor probably did it for different reasons.
“The co-captaincy is not a new concept. It is a very old concept, to be honest. When I was coaching Western Province and the Stormers I had co-captains in Corne Krige and Bobby Skinstad.
“As part of our evolution and development of the club, players need to take responsibility for their performances. They need to assist the coaching team in driving standards. We set the standards and have to ensure that the standards are met, but they have to assist, because it has to come from within them.
“When you need to make that step, having two people as co-captains makes a huge difference. The other advantage that we have there is that Stuart and Gilcho complement each other perfectly.”
New Zealander Mike Coman, now with London Irish, was Edinburgh captain last year and remains highly regarded by Solomons. But the coach believes that his two Scots forwards will naturally be more committed to the cause than anyone from outside.
“I spoke with Mike Coman, who is a terrific captain and a terrific bloke, and we agreed that we need to move it into a Scottish-led team,” Solomons continued. “The captaincy needed to come from Scotland. When it is from your own home it just means that little bit more.
“Gilcho is a highly intelligent guy and Stuart is a guy who can have an edge,” he continued, referring to the lock and the hooker. “But Gilcho is quite an edgy character and personality on the pitch, while Stuart is a tough physical competitor, but a very intelligent, cerebral character. They complement each other very nicely there.
“We have to develop young leaders, so I have targeted Jamie Ritchie, who is now on the leadership group. Ross Ford is there because he has a lot to add. We have these Scottish guys and they are starting to drive standards.
“The fact we have Scottish co-captains and all our leadership now Scottish - those things help to give us a strong identity. With that identity, I want to see our players taking responsibility for their on-field performances and working really hard.”
The move to Watsonians’ ground will mean a return to the ground he played in as a schoolboy for McInally. “Time will tell, but we’re all massively excited about it,” he said. “It's a chance to play at a ground that can hold 6,000 people and we can aim to potentially sell that out.
“That's something that Edinburgh Rugby has never had. It gives us somewhere that's not nice for teams to come to. Murrayfield is nice for them - a big stadium with good facilities. At Myreside the fans will be a lot closer and it will feel more like a home ground for us. We’ll be able to engage more with the supporters. It's a positive move for the club.
“I’ve known Grant for a while, so I'm looking forward to it [the co-captaincy] and I feel we’ll work well together. We've not gone into the nuts and bolts of it yet, but we've known for a few months and we've had a chance to put our own stamp on these things and bounce ideas off each other.
“In terms of matchday stuff we'll cross that bridge when it comes. We'll sometimes be on the pitch at the same time and one of us will be the one talking to the ref. That will be the only thing that changes. We’ll both be making decisions.”
No 8 Cornell du Preez will miss the start of the season after needing an ankle operation. The South-African-born forward becomes eligible for Scotland on residence grounds next month, but may now face a race against time to be available for the Autumn Tests.
“Cornell has had to have his ankle cleaned out, so he won't be there at the beginning of the season,” Solomons added. “It may be a few weeks before he is back, although he is now participating in the rugby programme.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here