Connor Boyle making the most of 'unbelievable opportunity' at Edinburgh as he reflects on Leinster yellow card

The Six Nations may have robbed Edinburgh of some of their key players, but Connor Boyle is certainly not complaining.

The ongoing absence of Scotland internationalists across the back-row has resulted in the young flanker being promoted into Mike Blair's starting line-up for recent fixtures against Ospreys and Leinster in the URC.

And the 21-year-old is looking to make the most of a rare chance to experience regular first team minutes at a young age.

“These last couple of games and the games we’ve got coming back have been an unbelievable opportunity for me," he said.

Connor Boyle is making the most of his opportunity in the Edinburgh team. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

"I’ve been lucky with the amount of boys who’ve been selected for Scotland and unfortunately there have been injuries too. I don’t think I’d had a run of two or three games for a few years now so just being able to build some form and get fitness in my legs has been amazing for me as a young player.

"Just fitting into the system we’re playing gives me the experience to play every week. It’s big games too – Leinster, Munster and Glasgow coming up. This is what you aspire to do and play against the best. And it lets me improve my own game too.”

Boyle will hope things go smoother in Munster this Friday than they did in Dublin last week after he was shown a yellow card for making contact with a Leinster player’s head following an initial tackle by Charlie Savala.

“I think it was just a rugby incident," said the former Scotland Under-20 captain.

"I texted Ciaran Frawley [now out for four to six weeks] after the game to tell him I hadn’t done it on purpose.

"In my view, Savala had hit him into me and I got in the way of it. It’s a hard one for the ref as it was head on head contact although it could have gone either way. It was frustrating at the time to get the yellow card but after that it was just about getting back on the field and making up for the time I had sat out.

“It was frustrating but I don’t make the rules. And by the letter of the law it probably should have been a card.”

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