Edinburgh Rugby lock opens up on frustration as he commits to club - but not right away

It’s been a wretched season for the capital side who have four games remaining but nothing left to play for except pride. Out of Europe and a lowly 13th in the United Rugby Championship, the campaign is limping to an unsatisfactory conclusion for Sean Everitt’s side.

Their struggles are in sharp contrast to Glasgow Warriors who are top of the URC with serious designs on reclaiming the title they won in 2024.

Everitt is being kept on as Edinburgh’s head coach despite the poor form that has seen his side win just four of 14 URC games. The coaching team around him is changing, however. Scott Mathie, Michael Todd and Rob Chrystie will all leave at the end of the season and this week it was announced that Australians Brad Davis and Tim Sampson are to join as defence and attack coaches. A third new coach who specialises in the contact area will also be arriving.

Sykes, who has agreed a two-year contract, hopes the appointments can spark a revival.

Fresh faces can pay dividends

“It's good getting fresh faces sometimes,” said the second-row. “It's good to have changes. It doesn't mean they're better than any other person, but sometimes an environment with new faces can pay dividends. We'll see.

“We'll all be really keen coming in next year. The end of this season is going to be massive for us. We've got a lot of pride to instil back in our shirt.

“We're not ignorant to the fact that we've not hit any of the heights we wanted to hit. My friends along the M8 have, and we're pretty frustrated about that, but we'll be aiming for this last month to put a bit of pride back in the Edinburgh jersey for the rest of the season.”

It starts with a home game against Zebre this Friday and Everitt will use the match to give youngsters Hector Patterson, Findlay Thomson, Tom Currie and Jack Brown exposure to the first team.

At 26, Sykes is now one of Edinburgh’s senior players and believes it is they who should be copping the flak for their poor season, rather than Everitt.

“Yeah, the pressure should have been on us,” he said. “It's tough when you see your head coach getting all the pressure for what we're putting on the pitch on the weekend, because we know a lot of that is on us.”

Despite the difficult season, much of which Sykes missed due to a serious arm injury, his love for Edinburgh remains undimmed. Originally from Suffolk, his roots are in Scotland through his Dundee-born grandmother and he has been based up here since his late teenage years. He originally started off in the Glasgow Warriors academy but moved east and made his debut in 2020.

Full Scotland honours followed the following year and Sykes won his seventh cap against Tonga last November, having also featured in the autumn Tests against USA and New Zealand.

‘The things you love... it's not always easy’

He is now close to 100 appearances for Edinburgh and his affection for the club helped convince him to sign on for two more seasons.

“I love this club. It's home here so it was really easy for me,” he said. “My wife's happy, I'm happy.

“The things you love, sometimes ... it's not always easy. I know we're not in the position we want to be in now, but I'm sure this last month now, we've actually got a really special opportunity.

“Obviously, we can't get anything league-wise and Europe-wise, which is pretty gutting, but equally, we're going to have young guys that are dripping in, and really, it'll be building towards that future.”

And there was no temptation to look elsewhere, particularly with the next Rugby World Cup just 18 months away?

“No, look, it wasn't an overnight decision,” said Sykes. “I won't pretend I got the contract put in front of me, and straight away said: ‘Yep, I'll sign it’.

“But I know from experience of my career, this environment, especially between the players, how we work with the staff, is somewhere I feel I'll get better.

“It's somewhere I want to stay, put my personal touch on it, and continue to get better as a player. And as you say, going into those big periods, I think we work closely between national coaches and stuff – there's a lot of integration between everything. It's where I want to be going forward.”