Jamie Sole was just a baby when his father David led Scotland to grand slam glory in 1990 – and now 26 years later the former is enjoying the challenge of captaincy himself at Edinburgh Accies.
Saturday’s 42-18 victory over Stewart’s Melville at Raeburn Place left Accies third in BT National League One with five wins and a loss from their first six outings.
The second tier looks intriguing and back-row Sole, who was handed the captaincy duties by head coach Derek O’Riordan in the summer, is determined to make sure that Accies stay in the promotion battle.
“When I was asked to be captain for the season it was a proud moment for myself because I have been connected to this club for a long time,” the 27-year-old said.
“We had a strong end to last season and with Derek and the other coaches able to get a full pre-season under their belts and shape the squad the way they wanted we are already seeing positive results.
“The most pleasing thing for me as a captain is that the talented, young players we have the club are willing to learn and listen and that makes my job a lot easier.”
Growing up with a father who was Scotland captain, Sole was always likely to get into rugby and he has always had great support from former prop David who watches a lot of the Accies matches.
As well as his father, his siblings have also made their respective marks on the sporting landscape.
His brother Chris made his Scotland cricket debut in the summer while other brother Tom is also a talented cricketer and is on the books at Northants.
Sister Gemma is a well-known Scotland netball cap and Sole believes having the others to bounce ideas off has been a great help over the years.
“I think sometimes mum got bored because we were all talking about sport all of the time, but it has been brilliant to see what Chris, Tom and Gemma have achieved,” he said.
“Dad never pushed us into sport, he just let us all try what we wanted and we all migrated to our own sports in the end.
“Given that dad played for Accies during his career too it makes me even prouder to be captain now and I think he enjoys watching our team improving from the sidelines.”
When he was growing up, Sole played in the Accies junior section before heading off to senior school at Glenalmond College in Perthshire.
His rugby continued there and then, after completing school, he played senior rugby at Accies before heading off to travel in New Zealand and Australia.
“The time I spent playing rugby when I was away in the southern hemisphere really toughened me up and showed me where I needed to get to if I wanted to try and play professionally,” he explained.
“Newcastle Falcons had seen a few videos of me playing in Australia and when I came back the offered me a trial.
“Then I was handed a one year contract with them in 2012 and at the time that was massive for me.
“Dean Richards had just joined as director of rugby and they had some great players in the first team squad. I was a full-back at the time and knew I would have to go some to be a first team regular.
“I hurt my knee early on and that meant that I was out for four months. I did get back and managed to play in the British & Irish Cup while the team won the English Championship and I look back on the year fondly.”
Since then Sole has been back in Edinburgh with Accies and, having switched to the back-row and usually playing number seven, feels there are good times ahead.
The feed advisor for Norvite stated: “On the pitch things are coming together nicely and there is quite a lot of competition for places which is what you need heading into November and December.
“In the background a lot of people are also working hard on the Raeburn Place redevelopment plans and the prospect of top class facilities being built is exciting.
“As a team our main focus is getting into the BT Premiership though.”
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