Bradley hails deals for rising stars as statement of intent by Edinburgh

MICHAEL Bradley has welcomed the decision of three of Scotland’s most talented young forwards to agree new deals at Edinburgh as crucial to his plans to strengthen the capital’s professional team.

Scottish rugby has witnessed a steady stream of young talent leaving the game for clubs in England, France and elsewhere – most recently Richie Vernon and Fraser McKenzie departing Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively for Sale and Edinburgh duo Alex Blair and Fraser Brown simply being released.

David Denton and Stuart McInally, both 21, and 24-year-old Steven Turnbull have signed contract extensions through to 2014, and Bradley believes that lifting any concerns over their futures is key to his building a new competitive squad.

“It’s very important for Edinburgh to give an opportunity to players of this quality to play without fear of being without a contract,” he said. “It allows them to develop and gives them ownership of the next couple of years, and it should also challenge them by saying ‘we have faith in you, now you have to perform well for Edinburgh’.

“We do want to start winning things and these guys are very enthusiastic about the potential that we have, and now we have to convert that. The benefit for younger players of not having to worry about the next contract is that they can concentrate on improving from being good players to becoming excellent players.”

There is no doubting the potential of the trio and Bradley is confident that while Denton is the only so far one to achieve international honours – making his Scotland debut against Ireland in the August World Cup warm-up – all have the ability and work ethic to make it.

“Dave was recognised by Andy Robinson in getting capped but he did that through his performances for Edinburgh in the latter end of last season. He didn’t make the World Cup squad, but came back to us and has been a consistent, strong performer in the first six matches. He is a strong ball-carrier, dynamic and physical; a big man over 112kgs, which is a lot of power on the hoof. He is quality in terms of going forward and he’s working hard on his defence, his step into contact. He’s still a young man, still learning the game but the raw product is excellent.

“Stuart is not necessarily as big as Dave but he maybe has a lot more rugby behind him and has a very good football brain on him. He has exceptional footwork, very good hands, is a very good reader of the game and has the balance of being a stylish player and a physical player.

“There is enough flexibility in our squad that they can both play at blindside flanker and No 8, but at the moment our thought process has David at six and Stuart at eight. We don’t lose much either way, with Netani Talei at No 8 as well.

“Steve is a little older, and this is a critical period in his life as a rugby player. He should now be looking at higher honours and to achieve that he will have to perform consistently well for us. He is being challenged there as well with Grant Gilchrist coming up, Esteban [Lozada] there and Sean Cox, who are all good players. But Stevie has a lot of the values that I like to see in players, in that he wears his heart on his sleeve for the club and is very positive around the team, so he deserves this opportunity.

“It’s probably a bigger challenge for him than the other two at this but he has to stand up to it and if he succeeds it will be good for us.”

The Irishman added that he was already looking at signing targets for next year. He was pleased to hear the recent words of new SRU chief executive Mark Dodson, when he stated that he wants not only to reverse the trend of players being forced to leave Scotland through a lack of money but also spend money to attract box office names.

He said: “Obviously my brief is to ensure that Edinburgh Rugby continues to improve and gets into the position to challenge, and by definition that gives me authority to go and sign players and retain players.

“Strengthening the squad is a continuous process. We will have more contract extensions soon, I’m sure, and there are some areas that are not good enough so even though we’re very early into this season we’ve got an eye to next year. It’s the same as any club with ambition, and I’m sure Mark [Dodson] will back it and if Gordon [McKie] was here he’d have backed it.

“It’s great to hear those comments and it’s something that Sean [Lineen, Glasgow coach] and myself would be hoping that Mark would say. The realities of that have to be met at the coal-face of business.

“But we’re talking today about young players that can be the backbone of Edinburgh Rugby going into the future, and the policy we’re using of identifying players early would be excellent for any side.”