Jones voted Edinburgh player of the month

A STRING of impressive performances have earned Edinburgh winger Lee Jones the club’s first Hotel Du Vin/Malmaison player of the month award.

The award, chosen by the club’s management team, was given to the 23-year-old as the stand-out player over the five matches in the month of September, with the young Borderer showing strength and guile as a line-breaking, try-scoring winger.

Jones first signed for Edinburgh last year after some exceptional performances for the Scotland 7s team and former club Selkirk.

Less than a season after joining straight from Scotland’s domestic divisions, he signed a two-year contract extension which keeps him at Murrayfield until at least 2013.

Edinburgh coach, Michael Bradley, paid tribute to the youngster’s efforts so far this season. He said: “Lee was given the opportunity to perform and has done very well. His performances lifted the team on a number of occasions. Some of the highlights would be his defensive work, particularly a covering tackle against Connacht, as well as superb line breaks in the match, against Aironi and in our home win over Munster [29-14].

“We’ve been watching RBS Premier 1 matches and have involved some of these players in games and training. The relationship between seeing players exposed to quality club rugby and us being able to make judgments on their ability is very important, as is evident by Lee’s success this season.”