Mike Blair hoping for full house at Edinburgh’s new home
Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair can’t wait for his charges to play in front of a bumper crowd when they kick off their United Rugby Championship campaign.
Saturday’s match against the Scarlets at their new home comes after two pre-season games against Newcastle Falcons and Benetton at the purpose-built 7,800-capacity Edinburgh Rugby Stadium, which is located in the shadow of Murrayfield.
With a real buzz of excitement around the Scottish club as they prepare for action, Blair is hoping fans and players can join forces to create a memorable spectacle for everyone on the day.
Long time coming
He said: “I’m really excited. This game has been a long time coming. We’ve had the warm-up games, we’ve looked at a few different combinations and we’ve got guys game time, and we’re in a position to get into the competitive stuff now.
“It will be a big thing for the club to have a crowd in here for a competitive game. We had 6,500 here for the (Newcastle) Falcons game and then we had about 4,500 for the Benetton game. If we get this place full on Saturday, they can really push us on and it will be a massive thing for the club.”
Since taking the reins from Richard Cockerill, Blair has been busy attempting to impose an exciting brand of fast-paced rugby on his new charges which he feels will be aided by their new plastic pitch.
He is encouraged by the way they have responded and said: “The attitude and the willingness to learn has pleased me the most. Things have changed since the previous regime in terms of our style of play.
“We’ve got this amazing new pitch which lends itself to that but the ability of the guys to switch on and take on messages has been excellent. On the back of their attitudes, I’m certain they can carry this game plan straight away.
“They’re really keen to do it. They’ve bought into what we’re trying to do. But we need to have balance in what we’re trying to do.
“It’s a windy old pitch here so you need to be able to play in a number of different ways to win matches. I’m really impressed with how quickly the guys have picked things up over the last few weeks and I feel we’re going to continue to improve and challenge a lot of teams this year.”
Scarlets finished 10 points above Edinburgh in Conference B of the PRO14 last season, and Blair is braced for a stern test from the Welsh side on Saturday.
He said: “Scarlets had an excellent game recently when they won (29-24) away to a really strong Leicester team who then beat Exeter (34-19) at the weekend. So Leicester are a strong team and Scarlets beat them.
“Scarlets have got some quality players across the 15 and they’re going to enjoy playing on a surface like this as well because they’ve got an excellent transition of attack. They will be strong.”
Scarlets captaincy passed to Wales centre Jonathan Davies
Meanwhile, Scarlets have announced that Wales and British & Irish Lions centre Jonathan Davies will captain the squad for the upcoming season.
In a bold decision ahead of 2021/22, new head coach Dwayne Peel has changed his leader as hooker Ken Owens is replaced by the equally experienced Davies.
Davies has played 170 matches for the Scarlets since making his debut in 2006 and is one of the most decorated centres in international rugby having won 91 caps for Wales and represented the Lions in the Test series in Australia 2013 and New Zealand in 2017.