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Edinburgh captain Grant Gilchrist signs contract extension as major milestone approaches

Grant Gilchrist of Edinburgh looks on during the Heineken Cup match between Saracens and Edinburgh at StoneX Stadium on December 11, 2022 in Barnet, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Edinburgh co-captain Grant Gilchrist has signed a one-year contract extension, taking him into his 14th season in the Scottish capital.

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The 33-year-old follows his Scotland teammate and fellow lock Sam Skinner in signing a new Edinburgh deal, which will run until June 2025.

After signing the extension, the 68-cap Scotland international said: “I’m delighted to have signed an extension to my contract. I’ve made no secret of my love for my boyhood club and the city I call home.

“My two young boys are now Edinburgh supporters and love coming to the games and chanting ‘Ed-in-burgh’, so my connection to the club only gets deeper and deeper.

“I’m desperate to help bring success for our fans and believe we have the squad, coaches and staff to make that happen.”

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Gilchrist ran out for Edinburgh for a 194th time on Saturday in the 34-21 win over Castres in the EPCR Challenge Cup, meaning he inches ever closer to becoming the second Edinburgh double-centurion following Allan Jacobsen.

On the prospect of achieving that milestone, he said: “It would be a huge honour for me to reach 200 caps, to be up there with the absolute legends of this club is a bit surreal to be honest.

“If, fingers crossed, I can make it happen, it’ll be an incredibly proud day for me and my family. I remember my first season like it was yesterday, getting to play alongside legends of the club I grew up supporting – Chunk, Mossy, Fordy, Mike Blair. Time flies!”

Before achieving any personal career achievements though, Gilchrist has back-to-back 1872 Cup derbies with Glasgow Warriors over the festive period, starting with a visit to Scotstoun on Friday.

After tying down two of his locks in consecutive days, head coach Sean Everitt said: “Simply put, Grant [Gilchrist] loves playing for Edinburgh and that’s been hugely apparent since I joined the club in the summer. He’s a true one-club man that takes a huge amount of pride in representing this team and putting his body on the line for his teammates.

“When Grant speaks, players sit up and listen because of his experience and knowledge of the game. What people perhaps don’t see is the amount of work he puts in away from the training paddock, his analysis and study of both his own game and opponents is second to none.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Grant so far in my time at the club – I’m delighted to see him agree terms on a new deal.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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