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15 for 10: Edinburgh - an all-decade XV

Greig Laidlaw, fresh-faced and in action in 2012, makes the cut in this Edinburgh selection (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

From a mesmeric but flaky group that leaked tries like a sieve to a turgid, kick-and-maul unit that barely scored any, and now to Richard Cockerill and his wonderful rejuvenation of a foundering club, in the past decade Edinburgh have shifted from extreme to extreme and back again.

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They began 2010 off the back of their most successful domestic season, when Andy Robinson led them to second place in the old Celtic League in the days before play-offs, five berths and 18 points above Glasgow.

Michael Bradley got them to a Heineken Cup semi-final in 2012, playing some of the most spellbinding rugby in Europe while delivering flaky, hapless stuff in the league and finishing eleventh. Alan Solomons’ methodical but often turgid blueprint yielded a rake of southern hemisphere recruits and Challenge Cup final but some dour fare along the way.

Then Cockerill fetched up, revamped the mindset and the form of his players and drove Edinburgh to a PRO14 quarter-final against Munster they should have won in 2018. There was another hard-luck story against the same opposition, this time in the Champions Cup last eight, a year later.

Selecting the premier Edinburgh XV of the decade throws up a number of exceedingly tough decisions and some areas where the competition is altogether paltrier.

(Continue reading below…)

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There are players who emptied themselves for the jersey and earned little recognition outside of the dressing room who don’t make this team. There are those as well whose brilliance was stark but fleeting in the context of the decade.

These men below were chosen not just for their ability, but for the influence of their contributions and the success they helped to deliver. Some are nailed-on starters, others more marginal choices. Plenty will disagree, but that’s all part of the fun. Here goes…

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15. Blair Kinghorn

Although he only turns 23 this month, Kinghorn has racked up over 80 first-team appearances and 22 tries. With Chris Paterson in his twilight days at the start of the decade and despite Tom Brown’s sustained and unstintingly committed service to Edinburgh, Kinghorn is the stand-out candidate.

The 6ft 5in back has speed, poise and a mighty boot. He can gallop through spaces with those long, loping strides, finish ruthlessly or pick an offload out the back door to a speeding team-mate. His tackling needs work, but he is a box-office player.

14. Duhan van der Merwe

The South African may have spent only two-and-a-half years at the club, but his impact has been enormous. Van der Merwe is a giant, deadly presence on the wing, a juggernaut who can shift his 106kgs beef at frightening pace, blasting through defenders like a grizzly bear swatting aside bluebottles.

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Already this season, he has made more metres and clean breaks and beaten more defenders than anyone else in the PRO14.

A brilliant pick-up from the fringes of the Montpellier squad, van der Merwe averages better than a try every other game, scoring 27 in 52 matches. If he signs a new contract – and that is a serious priority for Edinburgh – he will become eligible for Scotland in the summer, and Test rugby will surely follow. 

Darcy Graham, the little rampaging Borderer, runs him very close after a blistering assimilation to the professional ranks. Lee Jones was a dynamic foil to Tim Visser in 2012, while Damien Hoyland remains a fine finisher.

13. Nick De Luca

De Luca suffered some obscene public beatings for his Scotland performances, the scapegoat of a clunky backline, but you always sensed he was more at ease in an Edinburgh jersey.

The centre had probably the crispest pass in Scottish rugby, made searing line breaks and laid on a glut of tries for the men outside him, particularly Visser. Although he did much of his best work at twelve, partnered with the outstanding Ben Cairns in the previous decade, he was equally adept at 13 and formed a superb pairing with Matt Scott in the 2012 vintage.

De Luca could be a thorny character – his relationship with Solomons was virtually non-existent by the time he left – unafraid to speak his mind, but frankly Edinburgh have had too few like him.

12. Matt Scott

Across two spells at the club, Scott has proven a magnificent centre, direct and clever with the ball, solid without it. He has always provided a classy touch at twelve through his play-making, ability to pick wounding running lines and sear through them, and the soft hands to put his pals away.

Concussion blighted the start of his second stint at Edinburgh, but he is back this season in glorious form and a return to the Scotland set-up cannot be far away.

Chris Dean pushes him close.

11. Tim Visser

One of the best signings either Scottish team has made in the professional era. Visser was lethal, a 6ft 4in rapier who finished atop the league try-scoring charts four seasons on the spin. His haul of 14 in 2010/11 set a competition record that has yet to be surpassed.

He remains Edinburgh’s leading try-scorer with 68 in 131 matches – a brilliant return – and was still a dangerous presence even when the game plan left him hoofing it after box kicks far more often than getting hands on ball and space in which to canter.

10. Jaco van der Walt

Sadly, there is a real paucity of high-calibre contenders for the fly-half berth. Phil Godman produced most of his best work in the previous decade. Greig Tonks, Phil Burleigh and Jason Tovey all had encouraging spells. A series of Duncan Weir salvos helped propel Edinburgh towards their maiden PRO14 play-off. Greig Laidlaw was arguably the most influential man in both half-back positions over the course of the past ten years.

Van der Walt shades it for his attacking prowess and game management since joining in late 2017. He helped spark Edinburgh’s evolving backline under Cockerill and was a crucial component of the team that made last term’s Champions Cup quarter-finals, starting all but one game. He can be a little flaky, his goal-kicking can waver at times, but he ended last season with the PRO14 golden boot. At last, Edinburgh have a pivot with riveting flair and a pragmatic streak.

9. Greig Laidlaw

In the early throes of the decade, Laidlaw burnished his reputation as Scotland’s coming half-back, a belligerent little leader with a fiercely competitive edge. He had – and still has – a brilliant rugby brain that often gets forgotten when people leap to criticise his speed of play and crispness of pass. 

He gave Edinburgh a play-making fulcrum and a deadly goal-kicking option, finishing his seven-year spell in 2014 with 606 points from 139 matches. Laidlaw played a fair bit of rugby at ten, but his prime stuff was played at scrum-half. He nailed so many pressure shots – remember the conversion that decided a crazy 48-47 win over Racing Metro (as they were called then) or the last-gasp penalty that killed Toulouse in the 2012 quarter-finals?

Laidlaw gets in ahead of the great Mike Blair and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, who was named PRO12 breakthrough player of the season in 2015 but rather lost his way after the World Cup later that year.

1. Allan Jacobsen

It is desperately tough to do without Alasdair Dickinson, an immense presence from 2013 to 16, but it is even more unfathomable to omit ‘Chunk’ when weighing up each behemoth’s contribution to Edinburgh.

To look at Jacobsen and his bulging paunch, you would never place him as an international athlete, nor would you fancy him to be a particularly handy prop in open prairie. How wrong you would be. 

Jacobsen married his excellent bread-and-butter set-piece heft with deft handling and carrying that belied his physique. He is Edinburgh’s record appearance holder, and although he retired in 2013, he was still – literally – a huge part of the semi-final team a year earlier.

The wonderfully mobile Allan Dell also deserves a shout.

2. Stuart McInally

Leaving out Ross Ford, Scotland’s ultimate stalwart, is a brutal call. Few were as dedicated to his craft or his club, fronting up tirelessly through some of the grimmest days. The great shame is that he didn’t deliver his best, most snarling, most confrontational rugby more consistently.

For his work firstly as a barnstorming back row, then in becoming Scotland’s premier hooker, the captain that took Edinburgh to the PRO14 play-offs and top of a Champions Cup pool featuring Montpellier, Toulon and Newcastle, McInally edges it.

Converting to the front row at 23 meant hours of solo toil, bleak days and a loan spell in the English Championship. He came through it all, losing none of his ball-carrying dynamism. Under Cockerill, he emerged as one of the top performing hookers in Europe and a leader to boot. McInally is Edinburgh’s transformation in microcosm. 

3. WP Nel

The squat South African has the look of a truck driver who has just finished an arduous jaunt at the wheel, hopped out of his cab, pulled on his boots and headband and trundled on to the pitch to bash some skulls before he hits the tarmac again.

In his early seasons at Edinburgh, Nel was not only a magnificent scrummager but a very handy presence around the paddock. From his arrival in 2012 to his Scotland qualification three years later, he scored 14 tries. He was also incredibly durable across this period, playing in 83 of the club’s 85 matches. The Dickinson-Ford-Nel front row became the cornerstone of the Edinburgh and Scotland packs.

His powers may be waning a little now at almost 34 years old, but he is still trucking along very nicely. Nel recovered from a serious neck injury in late 2016 to regain his place with club and country and play at a second World Cup.

4. Ben Toolis

A shaggy-haired Australian, Toolis was signed six-and-a-half years ago and became an impressive regular in the Edinburgh boiler house the following season. Athletic and mobile, he did some of his top work alongside enforcer Anton Bresler on the run to the 2015 Challenge Cup final and continually stood up and played well through the malaise of the 2016/17 season. Tooils is a real lineout asset and gets through a mountain of work in open field, carrying with power, and hitting a ton of rucks.

5. Grant Gilchrist

The long-standing partner to Toolis, Gilchrist has had some brilliant years and some where injury and poor form have greatly diminished his impact.

He was fabulous in the early part of the decade, a huge, uncompromising lock in the team of 2012. Gilchrist also had tidy hands, a clever game and leadership that Vern Cotter soon identified. The gruff Kiwi made him Scotland captain in 2014 but Gilchrist promptly broke his forearm and missed a swathe of rugby.

His comeback from such a heinous blow took time. There was a gloomy period where, like most of the squad, his form fell off a cliff until Cockerill arrived, told him exactly what he thought of his play, and got him firing back to his best again. For the past two seasons, he has been outstanding.

Bresler, Sean Cox, who partnered Gilchrist in 2012, and Fraser McKenzie are also strong contenders.

6. Dave Denton

For all that Edinburgh festered in the rugby doldrums for chunks of the decade, they have never wanted for quality back rows. Jamie Ritchie and Magnus Bradbury head a legion of brilliant home-grown talent who will drive Scotland into the next World Cup. 

Mike Coman deserves recognition for leading the club with distinction through some of its dark days. John Barclay has only played nine Edinburgh matches, but his class is obvious.

Denton, a colossal wrecking ball and better footballer than many give him credit for, earns his place in an all-decade XV. He was devastating on the charge, thunderous in the tackle and relentless in his pursuit of work. 

Scotland have not cultivated enough monster carriers in his mould. A vital component of the 2012 team and much more besides, the debilitating effects of brain injury forced him into premature retirement last year.

7. Hamish Watson

The toughest call of the lot. Ross Rennie was a world-class flanker – 20 Scotland caps is a painfully meagre reflection of his greatness. What might he have achieved were it not for the relentless injuries that besieged his body? 

It is a travesty, too, that stalwart fetcher Roddy Grant was never given a chance at international level, even more so at a time when caps were dished out so freely. John Hardie was a real destroyer, although his spell at Edinburgh was marred by allegations of cocaine use.

Watson squeezes in for his sustained excellence, maturing into one of the finest open-sides in European rugby with fizzing ball-carries, limpet-like jackaling and a freakish ability to dynamite much heavier men as though his hand-offs were powered by hydraulic pistons. 

It is all the more impressive that he was so brilliant, so often in a team floundering badly in the aftermath of Solomons’ exit. His rise, alongside that of the club, has continued apace since. 

8. Viliame Mata

Another fiendishly difficult selection. Netani Talei was the swaggering fulcrum of that 2012 side, Nasi Manu brought ballast and leadership, and Cornell du Preez was Edinburgh’s most influential player before virtually snapping his leg in two.

Mata, though, has to start. Last season, he was probably the form number eight in world rugby, absolutely critical to Edinburgh’s game plan and soaring ascent under Cockerill. 

His offloads are stunning, but always well-judged. His basic skills are extremely polished. He makes yards where others would get smashed and his ball-carrying statistics are frequently ridiculous. 

Cockerill joked last year that he’d sell one of his children’s kidneys to keep Mata at Edinburgh. Fortunately, a fat new deal and an invigorating environment did the trick.

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Amelia Jonathan 2 hours ago
Don't get out over your skis on the Highlanders

My name is Amelia Jonathan from the United States, Using this opportunity to thank Dr. Ughulu is a grateful thing to me, for over years I have been sick with Hepatitis B disease, I have done a lot of things to get cured of my diseases and nothing has worked out. I have taken different types of medication for it , but it still doesn’t work for me. I still keep going for a check up so that the doctor will tell me my disease has be gone, because i’m taking my medicine with no result nothing has been cured, I have spent a lot of money just to get cure of Hepatitis B. until my old time friend came to my place and saw what am going through, and then direct me to contact Dr. Ughulu who is a very powerful man, which I did explain my problem to Dr. Ughulu and send me a herbal remedy bottle and explain to me how I should drink it. So I started to drink the herbal tea in one week that I drink the herbal tea. I went for a check up to check if I’m cured from Hepatitis B disease, then the nurse told me nothing is wrong with me anymore and said I’m fine. I am the happiest person right now. I promise Dr Ughulu I will testify about his good work on the internet. Reach out to Dr. Ughulu Via: drughulupowerfulspelltemple@gmail.com Thank you so much sir for what you did for me you’re the best of all. TEXT OR CALL: +1(252) 409-1841 or website: https://drughulupowerfulsp.wixsite.com/my-site-ughulu WHATSAPP NUMBER: +1(720) 794-2516

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J
JW 5 hours ago
Crusaders vs Force takes: Let's talk about Sevu Reece, forgotten All Black returns

I think Reece has bulked up too much and now doesn’t have the pace to perform to his previously high standards. He’s making himself less of a winger but I’m not really sure he’s filling another role succinctly either. I think criticism at the AB level has seen him try to redevelop his game, I’m really not sure he can be continued to be used at the highest level. Definitely becoming the wing version Richie Mo’unga is possible (if not already attained) at Super Rugby level however. I loved watching him play when he first broke through.

The Force are undeniably much improved this season, but it’s going to take some reps to prove to themselves that they really can hang with the big dogs.

Yeah they’re still well off in the quality personal front.

It was the 21-year-old’s first appearance of the season, and he certainly made the most of it, with 13 carries accounting for 50 running metres – each of them passing by in a blur as Springer made his may to the try line time and time again.

Will Jordan was playmaking superbly to assist the youngster’s points tally, but it was all individual brilliance in the 53rd minute when Springer tiptoed down the sideline before collecting his own chip kick and outpacing the final two defenders to score under the posts.

After pre-season I said that I wanted Springer to cement the starting jersey, and that (well I’ve not no idea exactly which sides they play) another new wing recruit, Kunawave, would replace Reece as the Fijian Flyer in the team by season end. Reece might be making that tough, but unfortunately it looks like there wasn’t a full squad spot for the young fella and he has since made his AB7s debut instead. Watch this space though as he and Saifoloi look to have the X factor👍


That Jordan pass to Springer aside it was otherwise a very lackluster game for him as he looks to be struggling with processing his option taking in this new style he’s trying. Still have to think a man of that talent and ingenuity is going to make it click sooner or later though!

t’s a congested position, and after Ennor shot down talk of him being swept up by a Top 14 outfit this week, it looks as if the Crusaders have some selection headaches to solve in the coming weeks.

That’s great news. I can’t remember if it was because he actually made his return in pre-season or not but for some reason I was liking how Ennor looked like he might be providing the right options for Saders and even ABs when back. Very pleased to see him fit straight in though there was plenty of space on offer but he almost looked as if he was more dangerous with no space. Could be the long looked for option at 13?

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J
JW 6 hours ago
Chiefs vs Blues takes: Blues need Spider-Man, McKenzie is All Blacks’ form 10

Chiefs were in the driver’s seat for most of Saturday night’s fixture in the Tron

I don’t know about that. The majority of stats all favour the Blues.

Referee Ben O’Keeffe did show the rising star a yellow card during the second half after a series of infringements from the Blues, but that shouldn’t take away too much from the main point here. Taele looks at home with the Blues in Super Rugby Pacific.

There were a few errors that crept into his performance in that second half, but yes, I was surprised after watching him a few times how comfortable he looked in his role as a 2nd5, and even how well he performed it. It is a shame for Lam to be injured but I picked up a distinct difference in how the backline functioned by having Taele at twelve instead. I might not have given him another go this week but now it will be very interesting to see what Vern does and without knowing what else is going on (Pero might be fit enough to start and psuh Plummer to 12) I think he might start again (Heem has been very very good in the role in recent years, is he fit).

Shaun Stevenson fails to make an All Blacks-worthy statement

He’s leaving Hamish (don’t know how you missed that), it’s impossible to make a statement for AB selection, and that also be well out of his mind.


Watching him in Japan he looked to be struggling as much of his team. Which is often how I think his contributions have depended, how well he fits in with the team. He’s a very unique player and I don’t think the Chiefs have anywhere near the right momentum and structure to unlock Shaun’s strengths. In saying that I thought he played well and that pass showed he’s in a great headspace, you might also be overplaying Corey’s contribution, which from the weekend would be of greatest value if he was Lams midfield replacement imo. I’d like Forbes to return this weekend and don’t think Corey did enough to take that opportunity away from him.

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J
Jahmirwayle 6 hours ago
Mixed Wales update on availability of Josh Adams, Gareth Anscombe

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J
JW 6 hours ago
Super Rugby Pacific has turned the ship around in the right direction

“We want jeopardy in our competition, right? We want ladder movement. We don’t want teams to stay in the same ladder position that they were in last year.

You need promotion relegation then. You cannot always rely on 4 teams being the right number for Australia, it could mean that they are too strong in future. Or that Fijian Drua doesn’t always has the players to knock of the best.

“We want unexpected results. We want every fan to be sitting here on a Friday at lunchtime going ‘I’m a chance this weekend’.’’ 

Oh, so you want a made up fantasy league like the NFL, rather than a quantifiable competition like NPC, and to a lesser degree, then NRL. Meaningless rather than meaningful, you don’t want the best of NSW taking on the best of Queensland, or the Blues region versus the Chiefs region.


There is still huge room for improvement in the way rugby is played and officiated, it is an incredibly young professional sport. Some of these introduced concepts are tricks taken from others and have done a lot to engage and increase Super Rugby’s appeal, but there has been a hint of whether the game is selling it’s soul to get back on the table.

For me, Super Rugby’s best years were around the turn of the millennium, when the Crusaders and Brumbies held sway. The speed with which possession was recycled at the breakdown and the minutes the ball was in play remains my benchmark for flowing rugby. 

Have you used you’re own license for viewing “feels rather than facts” here Hamish?


I agree, the rugby isn’t as good as it has been at times in the recent past, but it is more engaging. Which I think is due to a whole factor of fortunate and one off reasons, along with targeted ones.

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