Mike Blair: I don't want last Edinburgh home game to be all about my exit

Mike Blair takes charge of Edinburgh at home for the final time this weekend.

The former Scotland captain is standing down after two years at the end of the season, and following the match at the DAM Health against the Ospreys will only have a game against Ulster in Belfast before his tenure ends. He has said that henceforth he wants to concentrate on becoming “a world-class attack coach”, but has not ruled out staying with Edinburgh under a new regime, and certainly appears to be in no rush to find a new job elsewhere.

The team have billed their URC fixture against the Ospreys as “Fan Appreciation Night” as a way of thanking their support for sticking with them through a disappointing campaign. Many of those fans may choose to regard the event as a Blair Appreciation Evening, yet the man himself would rather any appreciation were directed at his players.

“I’m trying to stay emotionally detached from it,” Blair said on Tuesday. “I’m trying to prepare the guys as best we can and go from there. I’ve not thought too much about that side of things: it’s not about me. All along I’ve talked about this team being the players’ team: it’s for them to drive, we’re here to facilitate things. But I’m sure a few weeks down the line when the season’s over I’ll be able to reflect on things more.”

Most people about to lose their job would evince a certain amount of anxiety about the future, but Blair appears as self-possessed now as he has been from Day One in his post. “It’s a funny one,” he continued. “Believe me or not, it’s not something I’ve given a huge amount of thought to. People might see that as being naïve: ‘Well, your contract’s up in a couple of months, how are you going to pay your mortgage?’ That’s obviously a potential stresser, but just at the moment I want to do justice to the job that I’m doing.

"I want my focus to be on that. I want the players to understand that I’m putting absolutely everything into that. Then when the conversations happen over the next couple of weeks, I can sit down and think ‘What do I want to do?’ And the head coach coming in, he’s got to have a think about what he wants to do as well. I don’t believe anyone has been employed to do that job at the moment, so I think there’s still plenty of water under the bridge to come.”

Edinburgh announced this week that 13 senior players plus four members of the academy squad are moving on at the end of the season, and we can expect some arrivals to be announced over the coming weeks in addition to the likes of Scott Steele and Ewan Ashman, whose signings were announced last week. However, pointing out that the demise of Wasps and Worcester has left a significant number of players without clubs, Blair suggested that Edinburgh would not be rushing into the transfer market this summer. “Holding back a little bit and keeping your powder dry [makes sense]. It’s a buyer’s market: it favours clubs at the moment. What with Worcester and Wasps, there are plenty of players available.”