Fraser Brown: Here's what I think of Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors recruitment with one gigantic hole to fill

The annual influx of signings always creates intrigue and anticipation and Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors have been road-testing their new recruits ahead of the United Rugby Championship kicking off next weekend.

Both clubs have recruited reasonably heavily but without making big, marquee signings. Edinburgh and their fans will be hopeful Mosese Tuipulotu turns into their new star but it’s more the family name which catches the eye. Everyone knows about his big brother Sione who has been a tremendous player for Glasgow and Scotland over the last three seasons, but Mosese is a bit of an unknown. Game time at the Waratahs has been limited, with only a handful of appearances over the last few years. He is still young though, and if his brother is anything to go by, has a bucket load of potential. The hope from an Edinburgh point of view is that he hits the ground running and develops into a match-winner like Sione.

Ross Thompson moving across from Glasgow to Edinburgh is an interesting one and gives them another attacking option. This time last year we were saying Ben Healy was a brilliant signing for Edinburgh, and he has been really good. But the criticism of Edinburgh when Blair Kinghorn was at 10 was that they weren’t able to control and win big games and, at the end of last season, they were facing the same challenges with Ben at 10. That needs to change and Thompson’s arrival will create competition at stand-off which they didn’t have last year.

Adam Hastings is back at Glasgow Warriors after three years at Gloucester. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Centre has been an issue for Edinburgh too and Mosese’s arrival will help. They’ve also brought Matt Scott back from Leicester and while I don’t think he’s been signed as a first-choice starter, he does bring huge experience having been part of the Leicester side which won the Premiership in 2022.

I bumped into Matt at the gym the other day and he was talking about the difference in environments down south, especially when you have the likes of Steve Borthwick, Richard Wigglesworth and Mike Brown in the dressing room. They are so desperate to win every week and so desperate to land a trophy every season. Their standards around training are very, very high and that’s rubbed off on Matt and he’s really keen to bring that to Edinburgh.

Where Edinburgh have fallen down in the last couple of years is the absence of consistency. Last season, when Edinburgh were playing well, they were a really hard team to beat but they weren’t consistent enough.

Magnus Bradbury is also back, with Bill Mata going in the opposite direction to Bristol. Magnus was loved down at Bristol and hopefully he can bring that form to Edinburgh because on his day he is a devastating game-breaker. He is a big powerful ball-carrier and I’d love to see him doing that, not just for Edinburgh but for Scotland too.

New Edinburgh centre Mosese Tuipulotu chats to Duhan van der Merwe during a training session at Hive Stadium. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

For me, the most important signing is going to be Paul Hill, the new tighthead. There is a gigantic WP Nel-sized hole in Scottish rugby, and in particular the Edinburgh squad. He was the club’s go-to man when they were struggling. Whenever they needed a foothold in the game, Edinburgh would turn to their set-piece and their one-man scrum demolition machine. He is a very tough man to replace but it’s up to Hill, D’Arcy Rae and Javan Sebastian to try. Can one of them step up or can they collectively fill the hole?

Edinburgh have also brought in Ross McCann from the GB Sevens squad and he adds to the quality in the back three.

Four of Glasgow Warriors’ five new recruits are props and that underlines why front row is the most important part of any team!

Glasgow are the URC champions but there was an issue around the front row last year. Zander Fagerson played the full 80 minutes in all three play-off matches and that is testament to what an athlete he is. But it was out of necessity and in an ideal world Glasgow would have been looking to bring on a replacement after 65-70 minutes.

On the other side of the scrum, at loosehead, I’ve spoken before about how much Nathan McBeth has come on in the last couple of years. I also felt Jamie Bhatti played some of the best rugby of his career last season, so there is relative strength there. Rory Sutherland coming in adds to that. It means you’ve got two looseheads who could start for Scotland and a third, Nathan, who was in the touring squad in the summer and who I would expect to see involved in the autumn Tests.

So loosehead is not so much of a problem but tighthead is certainly an issue and that is reflected in the recruitment. You’ve got Fin Richardson, Patrick Schickerling and Sam Talakai all coming in.

Fin is a young prop who is pretty much untested at this level. He was at Exeter Chiefs and loaned out to Cornish Pirates. Patrick was also at Exeter and has played a fair few games for them but not too many in the last 18 months. I don’t think there’s a clear second-choice tighthead behind Zander but they do have options now.

I think hooker could be an interesting position too this season. Gregor Hiddleston and Angus Fraser came through last year but they’re still young guys with a lot of learning to do. Glasgow have also brought back Grant Stewart. Johnny Matthews is first choice but, just like at tighthead, there is a bit of a fight going on to see who will be the main back-up.

There’s no doubt George Turner will be missed. I think what benefited all the hookers at Glasgow in recent seasons, me included, was the level of competition. When I started, I had Pat McArthur and Dougie Hall and they were both playing for Scotland, and then we had Corey Flynn coming in who was an ex-All Black. Then George arrived so there was always at least two Scotland hookers in the Warriors squad fighting it out, trying to be the No 1.

There’s a decent amount of talent in the Glasgow front row but they really need to be pushing each other hard to get the best out of everyone.

I think the return of Adam Hastings is good for Glasgow, good for Scotland and good for Adam. He’s had a tumultuous three years at Gloucester but he’s now back in familiar surroundings with his family close by which will be important.

One slight criticism of Glasgow has been that they don’t have a natural 10. Tom Jordan was excellent last season but Adam is a 10 who controls matches and, in my view, the best Scottish fly-half after Finn Russell. If he stays fit he can understudy Finn for Scotland and push him which will be good for both players.

Edinburgh have also made a significant change to their coaching staff by bringing in Scott Mathie to lead on attack. He won back-to-back MLR titles as head coach of New England Free Jacks and although the standard in the US is a lot lower than the URC, he deserves this chance.

Edinburgh’s attack was poor last season, particularly compared to what it was like under Mike Blair who is a very intelligent attacking coach. It just seemed really wooden and I don’t think they had an identity. It was frustrating from an Edinburgh fan point of view because you never really knew what they were trying to do in attack.

I think Scott will add direction but it’s going to be a key year for Edinburgh. There has been a big coaching turnover there, especially across the past four years, and every time there is a change there has been an upturn in performance but not enough. So the question then gets asked: ‘Is it the coaches or is the a wider problem within the club and the playing squad?’ And if Edinburgh don’t make serious progress this season then the questions will become more persistent about the make-up of the squad and how long the players have been there.

If you can’t get results by changing coaches every two years then perhaps it’s something systemic in the squad. Hopefully Scott will help and I believe he has already given them more clarity in terms of their attack. We’ll get our first look at that on Friday night when they play Gloucester in their only pre-season game before the start of the URC the following weekend.