De Luca commits to a new two-year deal

The 26-year-old joins Steve Turnbull, Jim Thompson and Kyle Traynor in committing his future to the club.

Captain Mike Blair, Allan Jacobsen and Chris Paterson have also all recently agreed new deals.

De Luca, who has won 15 caps and rejoined Edinburgh from Borders in the summer of 2007, said: "There were a lot of reasons behind my decision to stay with Edinburgh.

"I'm enjoying my rugby here, we've got a good group of lads and good coaches. But the main reason is because I believe Edinburgh is a team moving forward and I want to be a part of that. Over the past two seasons, I've been fortunate enough to have been involved in the majority of Edinburgh's games and we've finished fourth and then second in the Magners League. Those were great achievements to have been a part of, but now we've got six games in order to better that and everyone is excited about what we can achieve."

Last season, De Luca managed to score a valuable try to ensure Edinburgh chalked up a home triumph over Ospreys, and the highly-rated back played a key role in the five-try mauling of the Welsh side at Murrayfield yesterday.

It was De Luca who fed Ben Cairns who in turn set-up Tim Visser for the first in his personal haul of three tries in Edinburgh's 33-17 victory.