Rugby: Fife wins new deal with Edinburgh

The 22-year-old centre or wing, who made a Scotland A debut in last weekend’s away victory over England Saxons, is currently playing on an elite development deal.

Increasingly it has looked as though Edinburgh would have to move swiftly to retain one of the few players to have  enhanced his reputation in a woeful season so far.

Confirming significant potential, Fife played in five of the six Heineken European Cup ties and notched a brace of tries in the home clash with Munster.

Fife has started the last four games including a match against reigning European champions Leinster and the home leg of the inter-city derby with Glasgow, and he has looked more and more settled at either wing or centre.

If selected for Saturday’s visit to Munster in the RaboDirect Pro12 League the former  Boroughmuir youth signing, who moved to Currie to gain Premiership experience, will take his number of Edinburgh starts into double figures while also appearing six times from off the bench.

Retaining the 6ft 1in and 14st 2lb Fife will certainly do much to appease supporters who have become restless at a perceived lack of opportunities for  home-grown talent such as this Firrhill High School-reared prospect.

Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley has been championing Fife’s abilities and said recently: “The best compliment that can be paid to Dougie is that we have lots of confidence in him when he is on the pitch. He just needs to keep taking chances that come his way.

“Dougie is diligent in terms of how he does his work and when he has played his strike rate in terms of tries is pretty good.”

Altogether Fife has scored twice in European ties and twice in the league including a debut strike against Ospreys last season after being called  in at short notice, going on to collect a man-of-the-match award.