Edinburgh Rugby's big reset can't afford to fail

Edinburgh's new defence coach Brad Davis has worked previously with the Australia national team. | Getty Images

You wait ages for a new Edinburgh Rugby coach and then two come along at once, a bit like the city’s buses.

On Tuesday, Brad Davis was named as defence coach; 24 hours later, Tim Sampson was unveiled as attack guru. The reset has begun, and not before time, the club’s supporters would tell you.

This has been a miserable season for Edinburgh who have won just four of 14 league matches and are set to miss out on the play-offs in the United Rugby Championship for the third time in four years.

Edinburgh's new defence coach Brad Davis has worked previously with the Australia national team. | Getty Images

Two of those botched campaigns have come with Sean Everitt at the helm but Scottish Rugby have kept faith with the head coach who was handed a new two-year deal in January. Usually, it’s the boss that carries the can but the high heid yins at Murrayfield have decided instead to replace the people around him.

It’s a big show of faith in Everitt, who led Edinburgh into the play-offs last season but hasn’t been able to deliver this time around. Paying the price for that is not the South African but his assistants.

Edinburgh look to Australia

Michael Todd, defence coach since 2022, will leave the club at the end of the season. So too will Rob Chrystie who had been Edinburgh’s attack and backs coach before being downgraded in 2024 to ‘skills and off the ball work’. That particular coaching reshuffle saw Scott Mathie join the club but he too will be on his way when the current campaign ends although, unlike Todd and Chrystie, it is of his own volition. He is joining URC rivals the Sharks in his native South Africa.

The personnel overhaul has extended to the imminent departure of some of the club’s medical and strength and conditioning staff “as part of a wider reassessment of its coaching and performance functions”.

Leading the revamp has been David Nucifora, Scottish Rugby’s seldom seen consultant performance director, with assistance from Doug Struth, the Edinburgh MD, and Everitt himself.

Nucifora has looked to his native Australia for the two big appointments and Davis and Sampson both arrive with impressive CVs. Davis in particular has coaching experience at the highest level, including a stint with the Wallabies as attack coach as well as significant spells at Bath, Wasps, Ospreys and London Irish, mainly working on defence. Queensland Reds was his most recent port of call, the same Super Rugby franchise from which Edinburgh recruited his predecessor, Todd.

Could light a fire under the club

At 58, Davis has accumulated a wealth of knowledge. A former rugby league player, he played in England and France in the 1990s and early 2000s, and his former clubs include Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers. He began coaching in league before switching to union in 2006 when he joined Bath. He spent eight years there as defence and skills coach and helped Bath win the European Challenge Cup in 2008 as well as reaching the Premiership semi-finals in three successive seasons.

Everitt said he has known Davis for a long time; Struth said the new man had options to go elsewhere but chose Edinburgh. It certainly feels like a weighty appointment and one which could light a fire under a club which has a reputation for underperformance.

Tim Sampson is a former head coach of Western Force. He will join Edinburgh in the summer. | Getty Images

Sampson, 49, is moving to Scotland from Fiji where he is currently senior attack coach with the Super Rugby Pacific side Fijian Drua, having previously held posts with Western Force, as head coach, and Melbourne Rebels, as assistant.

Edinburgh in Glasgow’s shadow

Everitt hopes Sampson will bring a different perspective and some freshness to the Edinburgh attack which boasts players of the calibre of Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe and Wes Goosen but struggles at times to create enough opportunities for them.

Edinburgh’s shortcomings have been thrown into sharp focus by the success of their neighbours along the M8. Under Franco Smith, Glasgow Warriors have an all-court attacking game which has taken them to the top of the URC standings and is great to watch.

In a country where there are only two professional rugby teams it is inevitable they will always be measured against each other. In that regard, Edinburgh have regularly fallen short. The hope now is that these two appointments, along with Everitt and the retained forwards coach Stevie Lawrie, can galvanise a squad that is packed with Scotland internationals.

The first step will be to get the recruitment right. Edinburgh need more creativity, players who can bring their star wingers into the game. Another season of failure is not an option for Everitt.