How Edinburgh Rugby plan to form club's identity around 'unbelievable players'

The mission now for boss Sean Everitt, his current crop of players and his new coaching team is to finally try and find an identity that can lead them to sustained success over the course of a full season and beyond. That starts now with the players, minus the senior and youth internationalists who were away with the national sides this month, back to pre-season training and getting ready for their 2026/27 URC and EPCR Challenge Cup campaigns.

Defence specialist Brad Davis is one of the new faces brought in to help try and deliver that success and is confident they have all the tools to do so. The experienced former Ospreys, Bath and Queensland Reds coach has been impressed with what he has seen both early doors and watching the club from afar since agreeing his move earlier this year.

“There's some unbelievable talent within the group” - new Edinburgh coach excited to work with players

Asked about what he sees the capital club’s current identity as and what he wants it to be going forward, the 58-year-old said: “I feel, from observing first hand, when you look at the player profiles that we have, there's some unbelievable talent within the group. I think Scottish rugby players and the Scottish rugby team, they play with flair, they want to play a fluid game, they want to put pressure on.

“For me, the identity of the club is how we can apply pressure in different ways, whether that be through our set-piece, through our attack and our defence. The identity is that whenever we wear the shirt, it's a side that attacks everything, with the ball and without the ball. It's a side that's full of energy so that when you're looking from the outside in, it's a side that competes for everything. It doesn't put their head down, it just goes after the next moment, after the next action, the next ten minutes and just build on that.

“That's probably leading into my philosophy as a defence coach. That's what I want to see, but I feel when I watched the team play last year, there were some games where they definitely demonstrated that. It's probably not as consistent as the coaches of that time would have liked to have seen, and it's up to us to get that consistency.”

What does success look like for Edinburgh on the field though and where do they need to aim to finish in both the league and EPCR competitions to feel they have achieved the goals set out. Davis believes it all starts with performing to the best of their abilities week in and week out in these challenging competitions.

He added: “You have to put yourself into the mix every week, especially in the URC. I’ve had that experience when I was with the Ospreys, It’s a challenging tournament with a lot of travel.

“In terms of where we finish up and what that looks like, there’s a lot of things that happen in between that. What I’m focusing on is to try to get the players into the best possible shape and give them some clarity around their defensive organisation, keep attacking every day as best we can and get better. Hopefully that puts us into a real sharp point for when the season starts.”

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