Friday was clearly the day for rugby's GT models.

Down in Swansea, Gregor Townsend claimed his first competitive win as Glasgow coach, guiding the Warriors to a 28-10 victory over the Ospreys, while Murrayfield watched Greig Tonks announce himself as a potential international player of the future with a wonderfully assured performance at full-back in Edinburgh's 41-10 hammering of Zebre.

When Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley signed Tonks at the tail end of last season, the assumption was that he had secured a decent back-up player for those times when his frontline stars were unavailable. The utility back had been a peripheral figure at both Leicester and Northampton and the Murrayfield centre stage wasn't exactly beckoning for the 23-year-old. Even after Chris Paterson's retirement, it seemed that new Scotland cap Tom Brown had made the Edinburgh No 15 shirt his own.

Over the past couple of weeks, though, Tonks has made it clear that there could be a tug-of-war for the thing in the capital club's dressing room in the weeks and months ahead. Which is pretty much what Bradley wants in his second season in charge of a side where too many players had occupied individual comfort zones in previous campaigns.

"He is quality, there's no getting away from that," purred Bradley after Friday's match. "It's fantastic for Edinburgh to have a player like Greig available. Competition is everything and we certainly have a lot more of it this year than we had last year."

You could read that remark as Bradley's opening bid for understatement of the season. The Irishman was effectively coaching two teams at Murrayfield last season – the one that went all the way to a Heineken Cup semi-final and the one that finished second-from-last in the RaboDirect PRO12. Such was the gulf in class between them that Bradley was often reluctant to call replacements off the bench, a tactic that led to a ferociously taxing season for some of the top players.

On Friday, all eight Edinburgh substitutes were given game time. Granted, Zebre were so weak that Bradley could have called up a couple of spectators, a gate steward and the bloke in the burger van and still secured a comfortable win, but the difference is still hugely significant. He now has a depth to his squad that no other Edinburgh coach has ever enjoyed.

"Having spoken to a few of the coaches and players there were a couple of years when that competition wasn't there," was the diplomatic assessment of Tonks himself. "They were restricted to about 15 or 20 players.

"I always knew it would be tough coming up here because there are a lot of good young guys at the club. Tom Brown had a great year last year, so there's obviously a lot of competition in the squad now, but it's good for Edinburgh to have that. It's nice to be involved at the start of the season."

Fitness allowing, Tonks' contribution is likely to be much more than an early cameo. Brown, who replaced him for the last 20 minutes on Friday, is just getting over a hamstring problem, but Tonks, who was born in South Africa and raised in England but has a Scottish mother, can also fit in at fly-half, centre and wing. And if that wasn't enough, he is a decent goal-kicker with it. Does Test rugby beckon?

Bradley said: "He's starting a new career at a new club and he has to keep working and keep putting in consistent performances. In terms of international selection, he can play at that level, there's no doubting that, but he has to work hard at this level to secure a place with Edinburgh and then push on from there."

o Chris Cusiter, the Glasgow scrum-half, is expected to see a specialist early this week to assess the full extent of the shoulder injury he picked up against the Ospreys on Friday. Cusiter was injured early in the first half of the match at Liberty Stadium and was taken to hospital in Swansea but was not detained overnight.