Hamish Watson accepts harsh truth after extending Edinburgh deal

Hamish Watson insists he is not ready to hand over his Edinburgh No.7 jersey to young pretender Freddy Douglas just yet and will still be “gunning” for a starting place next season after the club triggered a one-year extension to his contract.

The Scotland and Lions flanker, 33, will continue into a 15th season with the capital club after confirmation of his new deal ended uncertainty over the future of one of their most popular and long-serving players.

With Jamie Ritchie leaving to join French club Perpignan, head coach Sean Everitt was keen to retain Watson’s experience to help with the development of emerging Scotland U20s back-rowers such as Douglas, Liam McConnell and Tom Currie.

“We’ve got good young, loose forwards coming through and they can only learn from one of the best that Scotland has produced in Hamish Watson, so it’s good to have him around,” Everitt said.

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Openside Douglas, who turns 20 next month, was hailed as “world-class” by Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel when he was fast-tracked into the national squad last autumn and made a full debut against Portugal before he had played a senior game for Edinburgh.

An ankle injury suffered on his first club start – his only one to date – slowed the teenager’s rapid rise but he has featured off the bench in five of Edinburgh’s last six games to crank up competition in a position where versatile Scotland duo Ben Muncaster and Luke Crosbie also offer alternatives in the No.7 jersey.

But despite being omitted for four successive matches in December, Watson has still featured in 16 of Edinburgh’s 22 games this season, starting 11, and doesn’t view himself merely in a mentoring role next season.

“We’re all competitive people or we’d be doing the wrong job,” he said. “I’ll try to make sure in pre-season and in training that I’m doing all I can to start every week for Edinburgh next year. It’s not a year where I think ‘Oh, I’ll help develop younger players’.

“But if Freddy is playing amazingly well and gets a starting role, it’s also up to me to help him as much as possible because he’s a future No.7 at the club – I’ve not got many years left. I’m still going to be gunning to start, but if Fred’s starting, it’s trying to help him develop and be there if he wants any advice or needs anything.”

While a desire to progress youngsters such as Douglas may have led to Watson’s absence from the match-day 23 earlier this season, it was also reported that contractual issues may have been a factor.

Watson said he “understood” the reasons for his non-selection and was reluctant to go into detail other than to admit it was “frustrating”, but it’s clear he had to consider the possibility of moving on from the club he joined from Leicester’s academy, via Scotland Sevens, in 2011.

“When you have a short contract anyway, all players are pondering their future because there is nothing certain in professional sport,” he said. “You’ve always got that bit of doubt in your head, and clubs will always be thinking about who they want to bring in and get rid of as well.

“There’s always a bit of uncertainty as to whether you’re going to sign again, or are you going to move? The important thing is, I’ve got another year at Edinburgh now and a job for next year, which is good.”

A Test Lion in South Africa four years ago, Watson’s international career appears to be behind him, having not been involved with Scotland since winning the last of his 59 caps against Romania at the 2023 World Cup.

He has not spoken to Gregor Townsend recently and is not blind to the fact the head coach has plenty of alternatives to call on in the back row, although he is reluctant to definitively draw a line under his time as a Scotland player.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve not been told it’s closed, or I’ve not closed that chapter. But like in all things, I’m not delusional about it. I’m getting older but I still feel like I’m playing well. Who knows if I play well, or play well next season, a few injuries and you don’t know. Put it this way, I’ve not officially retired from international rugby.

“I actually feel really good. The last couple of seasons I’ve played a lot for Edinburgh. Obviously being out of the Scotland set-up is challenging at times when you’ve been around that for a while, but it’s also given me a chance to play back-to-back weeks for Edinburgh. I’ve been really enjoying it, I feel my form is good at the minute. It’s just trying to keep that going. Obviously we all need to be at the top of our game to get the win this week.”

With no Test rugby to distract him, Watson admits occasions like Saturday’s European Challenge Cup semi-final against Premiership leaders Bath are “probably even more exciting”. “It’s the biggest game I’ve been involved in for a long time,” he said. “You’ve got a chance to test yourself against currently the best team in England.”

Watson is the sole survivor of the only Edinburgh side to make a European final, in the 2015 Challenge Cup, when they were beaten 19-13 by Gloucester at Twickenham Stoop.

Current co-captain Grant Gilchrist missed the knockout stages through injury that year, although the Scotland lock was part of the side that reached the Heineken Cup semi-finals in 2012, the only other time Edinburgh have made the last four in European competition.

The two veterans have both been highlighting to the younger generation the importance of seizing the moment on Saturday.

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“When we got to that final in 2015, I was younger then and you think ‘it doesn’t matter, we lost that one but we’ll be back soon’. It’s taken 10 years to get back to this stage,” Watson reflected.

“Big games like this don’t always come round that often. You don’t want to put too much pressure on the young guys, but it is an important game and a massive one for everyone involved at the club.”

If Edinburgh are to give themselves a shot at silverware in Cardiff on 23 May, they will have to find a way of negating the influence of Watson’s old Scotland mucker Finn Russell. Might the flanker be tempted to make Russell aware of his presence early on?

“I’m not sure,” Watson grinned. “Finn thrives when people try to get after him. He knows people do that every game. We know how dangerous he is and we want to put a bit of doubt in his head. But when you start chasing Finn, that’s sometimes where you can concentrate too much on him and he can open up the game a bit.

“He quite likes that, being the centre of attention, so we don’t want to put everything on Finn. They’re a top outfit and they’ve got loads of threats all over the park.

“But we’ll see when we get him on the deck and he’s having a laugh. It’s one of those where I don’t know if he’s actually enjoying it – he likes to laugh it off, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to it, it’ll be good to play against him.”