Rugby: Edinburgh Accies will give Scots Under-20 cap Watson a platform

Edinburgh Accies are looking to field back-row prospect Hamish Watson (ex-Leicester) whenever this Scotland Under-20 rugby cap is not required to represent the Capital professional team or travel with the national sevens squad.

As he prepares for the new ten-team Premiership, Accies coach Simon Cross is ready to give Watson, 20, a platform to build on four bench appearances for Edinburgh in the 
RaboDirect PRO12 last season.

Says Cross: “Hamish will be available to us on occasions and overall we are recruiting well with Scotland under-20 prop Alex Allan joining from Loughborough and some outstanding recruits from school rugby in back row pair Cammy 
Simpson and Chris Dean as well as scrum half Alex Glashan.”

Back training with Accies is stand off Alex Blair as he recovers from a back injury which has restricted his time with Edinburgh to one game so far.

“There is no pressure on him other than to return in his own time scale,” said Cross who has had to employ some imaginative training ideas due to recent bad weather. “Thanks to Scottish Rugby I was able to take the players into Murrayfield Stadium where they ran up and down the steps all the way round, it took about 30-35 minutes and proved a real opportunity to see who was mentally up for the challenge,” said the ex-Scotland A flanker.

Accies have also undertaken a training trip to St Andrews in preparation for a pre-season meeting with Watsonians on August 11.