Glasgow lock Andrew Davidson is “defecting” along the M8 to join Edinburgh, leaving new Warriors coach Danny Wilson with another gap to fill in the engine room of his squad for next season.
The 23-year-old former Glasgow Hawk is the “good Scottish second row” Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill talked about a month ago when referring to the places to be filled in the capital side’s squad he said at the time was “98% finalised” for the 2020-21 season, whenever the return to rugby from the coronavirus allows that to start.
Davidson has been at Scotstoun in one form or other since 2015, as an Academy player at first, but has spent periods out at loan at London Scottish and at Newcastle. He signed a full-time deal last year but has made just eight appearances and had two starts for the club. He previously plaued at all age group levels for Scotland coming out of Kelvinside Academy.
Cockerill wanted a Scottish qualified second row to fill out his own roster with Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis on frequent international duty, and Lewis Carmichael likely to be back in the race for international honours after making his comeback from a long spell out with serious injury this past season.
Calum Hunter-Hill, highly regarded by many observers, was loaned out to Saracens last season and Cockerill believes that arrangement is likely to become permanent.
The head coach patched his occasional gaps with short-term signings like Sam Thomson last season, but it’s believed that Ayrshire Bulls’ Marshall Sykes will be joining up at Edinburgh for that kind of secondary role.
Davidson’s signing largely completes Edinburgh’s roster for the restart and the truncated completion of the PRO14 season targeted for September, which is anticipated will form effectively a pre-season for 2020-21.
Stand-offs Jono Lance and Nathan Chamberlain, centres Matt Gordon and Jordan venter and props Lee-Roy Atalifo and Dan Gamble have all been confirmed, while three of Chamberlain’s team-mates from the Scotland Under-20 set-up, captain Connor Boyle, Rory Darge and Sam Grahamslaw are all being promoted from academy contracts.
At Glasgow, the departure of Davidson and Jonny Gray to Exeter Chiefs, along with the retirement of Tim Swinson, leaves the Warriors with just Scott Cummings, Kiran McDonald and the returning Richie Gray as out-and-out locks, although club talisman Rob Harley can still move between second and back rows.
There’s also Leone Nakarawa, but the popular Fijian played just a couple of games in his Glasgow return after being sacked by Racing in France, suffered a knee ligament injury and was allowed to return home to Fiji when rugby locked down. It’s understood that he’s likely to sign for a Gallagher Premiership club in England once rugby restarts.
Cummings’ likely involvement with Scotland and the possibility that Richie Gray may force his way back into the international set-up means signing another second row is crucial for Danny Wilson.
So far the elder Gray and Argentinian prop Enrique Pieretto are the only confirmed incoming players to Scotstoun, with ten exiting the club at the end of this month.
On his recent departure Dave Rennie said he understood that Wilson would be announcing several new signings to cover the loss of key men like Gray, Swinson, Callum Gibbins and DTH van der Merwe.
