EDINBURGH’s game against Newcastle tomorrow is their first outing of the season, their first match at their new ground and their first under Mike Blair. Of those three firsts, the head coach himself believes his own debut is by far the least significant.
Hailed for some time as one of the most promising coaches of his generation, the former Scotland captain is about to embark on a crucial new stage of his embryonic career. Yet, after naming his team for the Falcons friendly, Blair insisted the occasion would not be about him.
“I haven’t really thought about me much,” he said. “I’ve tried to make a really conscious effort for it not to be about me. It’s about the players: it’s their journey.
“We as support staff are part of it, we’re helping it, but our job is to make the players feel comfortable and make the players perform. This isn’t about me and my first game: this is about Edinburgh’s first game in their new stadium and having the freedom to express themselves and work hard and work for each other.”
That freedom, however, is very much part of the Blair approach, and very different from the one taken by his predecessor Richard Cockerill. “We have tried to do things a little bit differently from what has happened before,” the new coach continued. “I'm really impressed by how quickly guys are picking things up, offering their own opinions and working collaboratively to find a way we are comfortable playing.
“I've been looking forward to this since about three weeks ago. I've been desperate to get this first game done to see where we are at and see the boys expressing themselves and playing well.”
Summer signings Henry Immelman, Ben Vellacott and Luan de Bruin are all in the starting line-up. Several other newcomers, among them Argentinian back-three player Ramiro Moyano, are poised to make their debuts off the bench.
Edinburgh (v Newcastle Falcons at the Edinburgh Rugby Stadium, tomorrow 3pm): H Immelman; J Blain, M Bennett, C Hutchison, D Hoyland; J van der Walt, B Vellacott; B Venter, D Cherry (captain), L de Bruin, M Sykes, J Hodgson, M Bradbury, L Crosbie, N Haining. Substitutes: P Schoeman, H Lloyd, A McBurney, P Harrison, L Atalifo, A Williams, P Phillips, D Suddon, B Muncaster, C Boyle, C Shiel, H Pyrgos, C Savala, R Moyano, J Venter, J Johnstone, P Anderson.
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