Everitt ready to turn the page on new Edinburgh era

New coaches. New signings. Familiar faces back from long injury lay-offs. And a Head Coach who’s spent the summer plotting exactly how it all comes together.

“It’s like coming to school for the first day again and meeting everyone,” Sean Everitt says. “It’s actually so energising and exciting.”

After a 2025/26 season Everitt describes candidly as ‘frustrating’ – one that saw the club forced to call on 48 different players through injury – the summer has brought a deliberate reset. Not just in personnel, but in mindset.

“We used 48 players and it hurt us,” he admits. “So we’re going to really put a lot of emphasis on injury prevention going into this season, so that we can use less players.”

But rather than dwell on last season, Everitt has used it as a launchpad. The changes made across the coaching group, medical team and squad this summer, he says, all point in one direction.

“We want to go into a new generation Edinburgh Rugby team.”

Leading that new generation are two significant additions to the coaching group: Defence Coach Brad Davis and Attack Coach Tim Sampson, both arriving with serious Southern Hemisphere pedigree.

“We’re looking at bringing in experience – guys that have been there and done it,” Everitt explains. “They’ve both been head coaches, they’ve coached at the highest level, so they bring a wealth of experience which will give the players confidence as well.”

It’s not just about ticking a box marked “experience,” either. For Everitt personally, the appointments were about sharpening his own thinking too.

“We’re always looking to have new ideas. Bringing in two Southern Hemisphere coaches allows us to do that.”

The refresh extends beyond the coaching lines. A new-look medical and S&C department has been assembled over the summer, with fresh appointments heading up both departments.

The theme continues out on the training paddock. Alongside Scottish-qualified talent arriving later in the year – Riley Higgins and Louie Chapman – Everitt has brought in proven, capped experience to bolster a squad short on depth in key areas

James Grayson – with over 100 caps at Northampton Saints – comes in at stand-off, while Scotland international prop Alec Hepburn makes the move north from Scarlets.

And crucially, he’s adamant these aren’t players settling for Edinburgh as a fallback option.

“It’s great to have these players wanting to join Edinburgh,” he says. “It’s not just because it’s a club that they need to join because they couldn’t find a gig elsewhere. It’s because they want to be in Edinburgh – and a lot of these players coming in want to represent Scotland, which is great for us.”

There’s also a quieter kind of reinforcement happening this summer: the return of players the club effectively lost to injury for large parts of last season.

Charlie McCaig and Matt Currie back in training, with Luke Crosbie and Rhys Litterick not far away.

For Everitt, seeing them back out on the grass is as significant as any new arrival.

“They’re like new kids on the block now, coming in and joining training in the next couple of weeks,” he says. “It’s exciting for them.”

While the first team regroups, Everitt has kept a close eye on Edinburgh’s next generation making waves at the Junior World Cup in Georgia – and the timing, given the transition the senior squad is going through, couldn’t be better.

“I’m really proud of them, actually,” he says. “I think everyone knows that we are playing the youngsters and we’re going through a transition period, so the better they do, the better it is for us.”

If there’s one word that defines what Everitt wants from his squad this year, it’s consistency – something Edinburgh has chased without quite nailing down in recent seasons.

“We’ve struggled for consistency, as we all know,” he says. “I think we have got better at that – you can see from the fight that the team has shown over the last two years, we certainly have that consistency.”

The building blocks, he insists, are already there. It’s about stacking them daily.

“For us it’s about showing up every day and showing that we can fight on a daily basis – that will build the consistency into our season, as well as the care and the growth in the team, which will come through new ideas from the new coaches, preparing the players better from an S&C point of view, and looking after them really well from a medical point of view.”

“For us it’s a fresh start, and we mean business from now on,” he says. “We know that bringing new people together might take a bit of time, but that’s not going to be an excuse for us.”

Amid all the talk of fresh starts, there’s one piece of very personal news that’s added a different kind of energy to Everitt’s summer – he became a grandfather, with his son Matthew and daughter-in-law welcoming their first child.

“That is great news,” Everitt beams. “I’m so ecstatic for them. It’s been a tough year for them – God has provided them with a gift after the struggles that they’ve been through.”

Naturally, his grandad status hasn’t gone unnoticed in the coaches’ office, where Everitt admits the banter has been relentless.

“There’s a lot of banter in the coach’s office –  you’ve got to have a strong character to survive in there from day to day,” he laughs. “I’ll still be the old man, although the coaches that I brought in – I brought them in for another reason too, to protect my age. They’re around about the same age as me!”

Grandfather status aside, it’s clear Everitt heads into 2026/27 with renewed energy and a squad – and staff room – built in his own image: experienced, hungry, and ready for a fresh start.

“Things are really looking up,” he says. “I’m looking forward to a good year.”