Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie’s claim that departures of established pro team players was essential to youth development has been undermined with the confirmation that one of those youngsters is quitting the domestic game for the English Premiership.
Fraser McKenzie, the Dunfermline RFC product who has established himself in the Edinburgh first XV this season and won recognition from national head coach Andy Robinson with inclusion in Scotland team training squads, has rejected an offer of a new three-year contract with the capital club.
He has instead signed for Sale Sharks, the Aviva Premiership club owned by former Scottish Rugby board member Brian Kennedy.
McKenzie follows the path of fellow Scotland squad member Richie Vernon, who agreed terms with Sale in March and was not offered new terms with the Glasgow Warriors.
McKie and Andy Robinson insisted a week before that the decision not to seek to give Vernon a new contract was made wholly by Glasgow coach Sean Lineen within the confines of his player salary budget of £3.8 million.
Edinburgh has the same cost limits the two Scottish clubs have among the smallest player budgets of any professional rugby club in Europe, frozen for the past two years but it is unlikely that the club did not wish to retain McKenzie, who had just completed a three-year deal and seemed to have become a key player this year.
Having graduated from the Scotland under-20 set-up, McKenzie had taken time to establish himself in the pro game but after a successful run farmed out to Dundee HSFP last year the versatile 23-year-old has impressed at both lock and blindside flanker this season.
He was called up to the Scotland training squad for the November tests while playing for Scotland A during the Six Nations.Return from Monte CarloIt is understood Edinburgh were simply outbid for his services, even though his retention was surely a matter of some importance to them with locks Scott MacLeod and Craig Hamilton also leaving at the end of this season.
It comes only a week after McKie, under fire for his refusal to put more money into the pro teams and his insistence that their failure this year is not due to financial constraints, told the media that it was essential top players departed Scotland to make room for young players coming through behind.
In McKenzie’s case, Edinburgh are now left with Argentinian Esteban Lozada and former Strathallan pupil Steven Turnbull as second-rows confirmed for next season.
It is now likely that the 20-year-old Stirling County lock Grant Gilchrist will be brought into the club full-time ahead of schedule.
Edinburgh did confirm on Tuesday that former Melrose centre James King has agreed a new club deal until May 2013.
King, who had a previous spell as a pro before returning to club rugby after a spell working as a deck-hand on luxury yachts in Monte Carlo, has won a regular place at inside centre under interim head coach Nick Scrivener.
The capital club have re-signed two of their stars in Scotland hooker Ross Ford and prolific wing Tim Visser, who is due to be eligible for Scotland before the deal he signed this year expires.