LONG READ How history guru Scott Mathie is sharpening Edinburgh's swords

For much of last season, Edinburgh were portrayed as a blunt instrument. A team with sharp saws in their toolbox, who only ever seemed to plump for the mallet. Glasgow, their swashbuckling champion foes, won just two more URC matches yet finished six places and 16 points above them on the log. Three teams in the league scored fewer tries. Only one, the perennially toiling Dragons, gained fewer try bonus points. Even allowing for injuries, mandatory rest periods and international lay-offs, an expensively compiled squad of Test regulars did not add up to the sum of its parts.

Enter Scott Mathie. A vibrant Durbanite with a bold career path and eclectic set of interests, he was parachuted into the Scottish capital via a labyrinthine slog of long-haul flights, infant children and a savaged body clock four weeks before the season started. A long-time confidant of Sean Everitt, the attack coach was on his way to a second straight MLR title in charge of the New England Free Jacks while trying to negotiate his contract and move his life across the Atlantic.

“I had six days from finishing the MLR final to get here,” he says. “It all happened in a week, bru. I had zero time for anything. The day before we won the title, I had to organise my shipment without having actually signed the Edinburgh deal, but I couldn’t hesitate because if I didn’t, the moving company wouldn’t have come on that Wednesday to get all my stuff.

“Then I had to travel with my two kids and the Mrs, fly them via Qatar from Boston to Joburg, drop them off in Joburg, and three hours later, I caught the flight to London, then Edinburgh, and started work the next day. Then when I got here, wow, I’ve got to meet the boys, learn what they’re about, and start that focus. I was a bit on the back foot but it had to happen quickly.

“I’m still trying to get things together. We’ve just been able to move into our family home, because my family came back with us from our mini-tour of South Africa this month. There were some logistics around getting visas, getting a car and getting into our place. The dust is starting to settle.”

Sometimes it’s not clear to everyone outside, they see a loss and don’t always see the little intricacies of growth and trusting in that process. Growth is never quick.

Everitt clearly values Mathie from his days on the Durban coaching scene. Why else would he wait so long into pre-season to land a specialist to address Edinburgh’s most glaring flaw. It’s a reflection of the talent Everitt sees in his new hire, who was coaching schoolboy rugby as recently as six years ago, albeit at the sophisticated and prestigious Durban High School back home.

Mathie took a leap and went to the Griquas, an unglamourous union set in the arid Northern Cape capital. His wife, Leigh, initially told him if he accepted the head coach job, he’d be heading to Kimberley alone. Leigh relented, but Mathie did not win a game in his opening Currie Cup season. Within a year, though, he had an inspired team turning heads and toppling moneyed opponents.

“The truth is, I had tremendous failure before I had tremendous success,” he reflects. “People never talk about that. My first year at the Griquas has always been the greatest failure. Taking over that team right in Covid, the first time in ages all the Springboks were available for the Currie Cup, and we played 10 games and lost all 10.

“I remember the pressure and intensity of getting up every Monday, being motivated, driving process – all these things. The next year, because of that experience and leadership we were able to grow, we did really well.

“When we went through the first three losses of the season here at Edinburgh, it’s so important to understand where you’re going. Sean is a great leader and we have a very clear path of where we’re going. Sometimes it’s not clear to everyone outside, they see a loss and don’t always see the little intricacies of growth and trusting in that process. Growth is never quick. But it is encouraging we are seeing steady growth. If we continue on this path, it’s exciting for us.”

If Kimberley was an unorthodox move, New England came even further out of left field. Mathie’s Free Jacks swept all in their path, setting records and playing beautiful rugby.

“I didn’t want to stay in South Africa because I felt I was stagnating a little. I felt America would be awesome, different personalities and people from all over. Many people said, ‘once you go there that’s it, it’s a graveyard’. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in what’s exciting, what’s a cool opportunity to grow. That’s what I’ll roll with. I try and remove the ego, which is quite difficult at times, but I realised if you’re not enjoying what you do and happy it’s going to stretch and grow you, then life is going to suck, bro.”

Mathie admits the MLR is galaxies apart from his new surrounds, where world champions, Lions and Six Nations Grand Slammers prowl every paddock. He talks, too, about the things he loves. His 9ft surfboard back in South Africa, his obsession with deep fantasy novels and penchant for fine single malt. Once a history teacher, he weaves the tales of ancient battles through his coaching vernacular.

“I’m a teacher first,” he says. “A lot of my stories have been around the Anglo-Boer Wars. When I coached the Griquas, Kimberley is right where it all happened, the Battle of Magersfontein and all that. I need to brush up on my Scottish-English battles and try to bring that flavour into my teachings here. I love it.

Even the George Martin stuff, Ice and Fire, we’re still waiting for the book. That guy is going to die before we have this literature out.

“It’s all storytelling. That’s why I get into the fantasy stuff. It’s my guilty pleasure when I want to switch off. Brandon Sanderson is my man. The Mistborn trilogy, the Stormlight Collective is amazing, or Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m still waiting for his 12^th book, it’s been about 12 years now since the last one.

“Even the George Martin stuff, Ice and Fire, we’re still waiting for the book. That guy is going to die before we have this literature out. I was speaking to Jamie Ritchie the other day, who is really into Lord of the Rings, and I told him you need to invest 400 pages before you get into one of these books. It’s world-building. Once you’re in, you’re in. And you’re in for years.”

There was no sci-fi Eden to escape Edinburgh’s grim start to the campaign, dealt a brutal hand by the fixture-generating supercomputer. A scorned Leinster at home first up, then jaunts to Loftus Versfeld and Ellis Park, where the mortification inflicted by the Lions raised grave questions about where the team was heading. Saturday’s 38-7 dismantling of a solid Stormers outfit healed a few wounds, although nobody is about to herald an attacking revolution quite yet.

“Being accurate does take time,” Mathie says. “We’ll get two really good plays off set-piece and just when we need to pull the trigger, it’s that last bit of execution.

“We have got a really strong group of forwards, a dominant, physical pack and that brings a lot of opportunity. We have to use that. Against Stormers, you saw that in full action. You are able to do a lot with a maul that works, a scrum that works. People are worried about those, now you can create different forms of attack off that. Tries are tries, wherever they come from.

“An area which we definitely need to grow, and I’m passionate about improving, is our counter and transition work. You saw a very good transition try on the weekend when Ben Muncaster was put through. That’s where we need to get better. We force turnovers but we don’t capitalise on them. That’s where the game is going and it’s been a big focus point for me. But it takes time for guys to understand what we need to follow and get right to take those opportunities. There, you only have a couple of seconds to make the right decisions to keep the defence at sixes and sevens.

“I’m seeing the growth, it’s just maybe not as rapid as everyone wants. I’m really happy with the direction we’re going in.”

For an attack coach, walking into a team room with Duhan van der Merwe, Darcy Graham, Wes Goosen and their pals is like a child waking up on Christmas morning to a stocking full of presents. Mathie needs time to sharpen Edinburgh’s blades and get them into positions of influence more frequently, but the materials he has to work with are tantalisingly good.

Sometimes, if you’re really detail-oriented, you can get lost in the detail for detail’s sake. You can become a slave to shape, instead of going, ‘where’s the space, do we have momentum?’

“Whenever you get your set-piece strikes, you’re always thinking, how can we get Duhan into space, or how can we use Darcy here? Transition and counter is where you get those guys into real space with time. System attack and going through phases is all good and well, and they can work off their wings, but it’s not as de-structured as the transition parts of the game.

“It’s really about understanding space and momentum. That’s key. Sometimes, if you’re really detail-oriented, you can get lost in the detail for detail’s sake. You can become a slave to shape, instead of going, ‘where’s the space, do we have momentum?’ That’s the exciting challenge.

“We are starting to see that come alive and grow into this game where we have multiple options, we can take the space here or there, and you’ve got to have setups to allow those options to be taken, so players can look up, see space and take it.

“That’s where the game is, because defences are very organised and structured. Any seam you get, you cannot allow them a second moment of recovery by setting up an extra ruck or not taking the space on offer. It’s only there for one phase. You don’t take it, you’re back fighting against the wall again.”

There’s a personal touch to Mathie’s voyage. He can trace his family roots back to the Highland Clan Matheson, prominent throughout Scotland’s feudal history. Some of his earliest memories entail his father and uncles singing and drinking whisky on their roof on New Year’s Eve. Both his parents had sufficient Scottish heritage to qualify Mathie for a cap, had the opportunity ever come to pass. Once scrum-half understudy to the iconic Bull Fourie du Preez, he finished his playing career with Leeds and Sale, making frequent trips north of the border and forging strong friendships.

Just what @EdinburghRugby needed! 🏰

A good start gets even better as Ben Muncaster runs through the heart of the Stormers’ defence 👏 pic.twitter.com/l4oyWnvwBb

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) October 12, 2024

On the eve of every match he coaches, Mathie channels that childhood revelry and settles down with a glass of whisky. Sometimes in his new family pad; sometimes out on the cobbles of Edinburgh’s Old Town.

“Back in the States, I got in a panic because I once forgot to have it the night before. We had a 5pm game and I went, ‘no, no, no, we can’t break tradition here’. Boom, I had a shot. That only happened once.

“My good mate who is here in Edinburgh has been in whisky his whole life. There’s not a whisky we can have that I don’t get the full background on. I got really into it.

“He actually gave me a bottle of Glen Moray 18, that was my whisky of the week before the Stormers game. The great thing about being in Edinburgh is you can go into any little place and there’s this amber glow on the wall… ‘let me go with that one’.”

Cardiff fly north on Saturday, aiming to puncture Edinburgh’s cautiously building feelgood. It’s a dangerous fixture. Lose, and deep-rooted accusations about mentality and ruthlessness will rear again. But an Edinburgh side, winning consistently, scoring tries and finally living up to its handsome potential? Now that’s worth toasting.