Edinburgh Rugby have agreed to rest captain Greig Laidlaw for five weeks, following a request from the Scotland national team.
The five-week break is intended to front-end the coming 2014/15 season with an appropriate amount of rest, going into a crucial, 12-month competitive campaign that starts with Scotland’s 2014 four Test summer tour and culminates in the Rugby World Cup the following year.
Scottish Rugby director rugby, Scott Johnson said: “Greig [Laidlaw] has played a lot of rugby for both Edinburgh Rugby and Scotland this season and he’s been a key figure in our leadership group.
“With the schedule as it stands looking ahead over the next 16 to 18 months, we’re grateful to Edinburgh for supporting this move.”
The extended rest period keeps the door open for Scotland A capped pair Grayson Hart (25) and Sean Kennedy (22), and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (20), as the club looks forward to the seasons ahead.
Fife set to miss the rest of the season
Edinburgh wing Dougie Fife has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a hand injury.
The 23 year-old sustained ligament damage to his thumb during the club’s 9-3 loss to Ulster at Murrayfield Stadium last Friday in what was his 20th start in as many appearances for the side this season.
Following a specialist consultation, Fife had corrective surgery on his hand on Monday and is expected to be out of action for the next two months.
Glasgow hookers sign new contracts
Glasgow Warriors hookers Fraser Brown and Kevin Bryce have both signed new two-year contracts meaning they will be staying at the club until at least May 2016. Both signed their first permanent deals last summer, with Brown going on to be capped for Scotland and both players earning Scotland A caps earlier this year, with Brown in particular impressing.
He was called up as an injury replacement to Scotland’s 2013 summer tour to South Africa and made his debut in the victory over Italy.
6 Responses
Just seen the Glasgow line up for what is likely to be the most important game of their season.
Bit shocked to see another rejigged backline being played. I can’t understand why Townshend thinks consistency is so unimportant. Not to mention the fact that Bennett has now been dropped from the bench. I haven’t seen too many of Glasgow’s games – has he been really poor? It must be galling for one of Scotland’s bright young things to be shunted behind Vernon and now behind Russell. Not sure extending his term at Glasgow was a wise move. He did very well at the tail end of last season but when I’ve seen him play this year he has been pretty peripheral to the action.
Glasgow keep winning but they are a shadow of the swashbuckling side of last year. What has caused this decline? Losing Peter Horne hasn’t helped but the constant chopping and changing of the team seems to have undermined their cutting edge.
I think Bennett is on a plane to the Scotland 7’s team.
Yes, you are correct.
Lee Jones also on plane to Hong Kong. The weekend away may soothe their pain at not being selected for Glasgow. Although Glasgow commonwealth games may be on their minds.
I note that Leonard, Hunter and Francis are all confirmed as moving on from Edinburgh now. With Laidlaw gone too, that leaves only 1 player that can cover stand-off, and a convert at that, in Tonks. I hope this means there are signings on the way – perhaps Heathcote from Bath? Perhaps an SQ from the southern hemisphere (hopefully of real quality). Perhaps even one of the Glasgow boys (Jackson)? Surely the SRU can’t be stupid enough to have a non SQ player as the first choice FH for Edinburgh?
Hopefully next season starts with:
Glasgow – Weir, Finn Russel, Horne, EDP
Edinburgh – New SQ FH, Tonks, EDP, EDP
Glad to see changes at FH for Edinburgh. Good move for Leonard, he was a promising youth player and performed well in his early starts for the club. He is still only 21 and has plenty of time to develop into an international. It is a shame some ‘supporters’ are so willing to write off young men for not immediately being fully-formed stars at pro-level.
Surely Heathcote must be on his way up north? It would be good for all involved as his career is going nowhere being Ford’s understudy and he’ll want a shot at a world cup place.