Cairns unfazed by No 13 rival Grove's move to Edinburgh

EDINBURGH centre Ben Cairns insisted yesterday that he was delighted his club signed Alex Grove, a rival for the Scotland No 13 jersey, and hoped that Grove could help him prove he deserved to claim it back.

Cairns, 24, was yesterday called up to Scotland's sevens squad for this weekend's final IRB World Sevens Series tournament at Murrayfield. He replaces the injured Scott Forrest while Greig Laidlaw takes over from Forrest as skipper.

Cairns views it as an extra chance to remind the Scotland selectors of his ability, particularly after his exile from the full Test picture continued with selection for the A squad to return to Romania. Grove, the 21-year-old he took under his wing on the A tour last summer, has not only clinched a year's loan move to Edinburgh from Worcester, but also edged ahead of Cairns in the Scotland pecking order this season and will head to Argentina to vie with Max Evans for the No 13 jersey.

Cairns is a strong-minded individual and his positivity is a clear asset to the Edinburgh coaches. So it came as little surprise that he endorsed Grove's move to Edinburgh. "It is great for Edinburgh," he said. "Every successful squad needs competition for places and if we can build that competition at Edinburgh then we will be more successful and that's good. I've just signed another three-year deal and I want Edinburgh to be successful, and we need competition for places to make that happen.

"It's hard to play at the top of your game for a whole season in modern professional rugby, and also being able to mix combinations and still have the team performing well is good for any team. It is good for competition and it will drive the whole team on I think.

"Alex is a massive talent. My first experience with him was in Romania last year and some of his off-loading skills, being able to play through the contact and get ball away, especially against Russia in his first game, and then you saw his defence against Australia and Fiji in the autumn Tests, which was also impressive. He has been on a real high since Romania I think and kept progressing really well on to the international stage."

Edinburgh are also looking at Argentine forwards Carlo Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe and Esteban Lozada in a bid to add some experience to the pack. Cairns insisted that Edinburgh did not lack experience with players such as Mike Blair, Chris Paterson, Allan Jacobsen and Simon Webster around, but acknowledged: "Talents like Lobbe would benefit Edinburgh rugby and it would be brilliant if we could bring guys like that in, but we do have experience. If you can bring guys in that are going to make a difference, like Todd (Blackadder] did, that's brilliant, but at the same time we've got a really good squad and it's beneficial that we've grown up together and have played together for a long time.

"The team spirit we have at Edinburgh would be hard to match anywhere else. It wasn't (good enough for top four] this year, but last year we were top two in the Magners League and so we are capable of it. We had a disappointing season this time but we believe we are good enough and are looking to make sure we are there next year."

However, Cairns faces a battle to regain his place in the Scotland set-up and he was keen yesterday to accentuate the positives of missing out on the senior tour to Argentina and being back involved with the sevens for the first time since helping the side to a first-ever win over South Africa three years ago.

He added: "I was obviously really disappointed (not to be selected for the Argentina tour] but the coaches have said they are looking at the Argentina tour, the A tour and the sevens as well to a degree as a whole, and I'm looking at it as a positive in the sense that I've got the chance to play two, maybe three, games in Romania as opposed to maybe getting on the bench in Argentina, and so have more time to prove myself.

"It is a while since I've played sevens but I'm really looking forward to the challenge. Before that I played a bit of sevens and won the Cartha (Glasgow City] Sevens and with Edinburgh we won the Edinburgh City Sevens with Boroughmuir, and having not been involved with the play-offs with Edinburgh we've had a couple of weeks off and I see this as great preparation now for the Romania tour and try to have a massive impact over there.

"It will be a hard pitch over there and the type of game we want to play is a running game, so the training this week and the ties this weekend will be great preparation."