Rugby: Grant honoured with Edinburgh captaincy

Published on Wednesday 28 July 2010 14:51

Edinburgh Rugby flanker Roddy Grant has pledged to repay the faith of coach Rob Moffat, who has handed the 23-year old the captaincy for the forthcoming season.

Grant showed his mettle as skipper in the final two matches of last season's Magners League campaign and his obvious leadership qualities convinced Moffat to hand him the responsibility on a permanent basis.

Relishing the task, Grant said: "This is a proud day and a massively exciting opportunity for me. It's an honour just to be an Edinburgh player, so to be named captain is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can to make a success of the job and to ensure the team has a great season. All the ingredients are there for that to happen."

Grant, who joined the Murrayfield outfit last summer, featured in the Scotland A squad which won the IRB Nations Cup in 2009 and has been a regular in the Scotland sevens squad over recent years, captaining the side on the 2008/09 IRB circuit.

He made an instant impression on his Edinburgh colleagues who voted him the Players' Player of the Year and club Young Player of the Year last season.

Grant, who assumes the role from Mike Blair, has received the full backing of the outgoing skipper and acknowledged Blair's words of support, adding: "I'm grateful to Mike for wishing me luck in the role and I'm looking forward to having his support going forward.

"I'm confident I have the respect of my team-mates and will be doing everything I can to justify the faith that the coaches have shown in me."

Moffat explained the decision to hand the duties to Grant, saying: "I've had a number of good discussions with Mike, and we both agreed that it would be a good idea to widen our pool of leaders. Nothing has changed in terms of how we want Mike to influence others."

And he outlined the qualities that had earned the younger man the job, stating: "Everything we've seen from Roddy since he came into the Edinburgh fold has shown him to be a mature and confident rugby player who can handle anything that's thrown at him.

"He has the respect of his coaches and his team mates and performed well when we made him captain for those games last season."