Club Update: October 2026

There has been plenty of activity, and plenty of change on and off the pitch. Whilst much of the focus naturally falls on what happens on the pitch, a huge amount of work also continues behind the scenes to ensure that we’re maintaining the growth of Edinburgh Rugby, while building a stronger club for the future.

Preseason change

This has been the biggest pre-season of change that I have been part of at this club. We have made wholesale changes to our coaching group with Tim Sampson (Attack), Brad Davis (Defence), Michael Hodge (Contact/Skills) and Stevie Lawrie – retained as Forwards Coach – brought in specifically to support Sean Everitt and ensure the best possible structures around him.

These are experienced coaches who have been there and done it, at the very top level, in multiple competitions and in many countries. Their experience enables Sean to lead this club with the bigger picture in mind, while they drive the detail.

That is not a reflection on anyone who came before. It is simply what the next stage of the development of our club needs. And already, in training, in preseason, and in our opening BKT URC victory against Ulster last weekend, I believe that we saw the tempo, the energy and the front-foot mentality shifting.

A positive start on the pitch

That shift will not be completed overnight. I have spoken before about the need for patience, as we continue to develop the next generation of Edinburgh Rugby.

Last weekend’s victory in Belfast was a positive start. We saw a team playing a new style of rugby with tempo and purpose in attack, and physicality and intent in defence.

The matchday squad against Ulster involved 5 debutants, 13 Academy graduates, and 10 players aged 22 or under. Tonight, against DHL Stormers, that number increases to 11 – one of the youngest matchday squads that we have fielded in the professional era.

Young players will sometimes be inconsistent, but the last weekend’s result in Belfast shows the high ceiling that ours have. The same was true in last season’s wins over Toulon, Gloucester, and Sharks – as well as a first away win in Treviso for 9 years. We also saw that high ceiling as our youngsters went toe-to-toe in the Aviva Stadium in the Investec Champions Cup knockouts against Leinster – a side that included 12 British & Irish Lions, plus one All Black.

More experience for our young players will drive more consistency – and with your patience and support these young players can be become legends in the Edinburgh Rugby jersey.

The next challenge tonight is an experienced and physical DHL Stormers team, including World Cup winning Springboks, who will test us at another level.

Please get behind our young team tonight in this massive challenge.

Recruitment and returning quality

Our young players will not be on their own this season. Against Ulster, we were able to draw on the experience of the likes of Magnus Bradbury, Paul Hill, Piers O’Conor, Callum Hunter-Hill, Glen Young, and new signings James Grayson and Alec Hepburn.

Adding to that, we will have top-class players like Pierre Schoeman, Darcy Graham, Ewan Ashman, Duhan van der Merwe, and Wes Goosen. That group will grow further when Riley Higgins and Louie Chapman join us from New Zealand in November. Our leadership group has also expanded over the summer, with Matt Currie, still only 25 but already with 73 Edinburgh Rugby appearances, joining fellow home-grown Academy graduate Magnus Bradbury as co-captain.

It is that mix of quality, leadership, experience, and opportunity that we must keep building.

Scrum-half, fly-half, and midfield were all identified by Sean as areas that we needed to strengthen over the summer – and the quality arrivals of Riley, Louie, and James are the results of that.

Tonight’s match sees the welcome return of one of our four British & Irish Lions, Pierre Schoeman. The coming weeks will then see the gradual return of many of our more experienced players, as we manage an injury list that continues to be impacted by the legacy of recovery from last season’s injuries.

Ticket sales

Last season, we were humbled by your support in often challenging circumstances. Our regular season average crowd at Hive Stadium was a new record – a record that we have consistently broken every year for the past five seasons – and our season ticket holders also hit new record levels.

For this coming season, season ticket sales are very slightly down on last year’s record, but not by much. This slight drop is fully understandable in the circumstances. However, match ticket sales for tonight’s game against DHL Stormers have been strong, with a big crowd expected, and we will still start this season with one of our highest season ticket holder numbers.

I firmly believe that with a new brand of rugby, an exciting team, and some quality home fixtures against the likes of Toulon, Harlequins, Leinster, and Munster, we will see some fantastic sell-out evenings at Hive Stadium in the weeks and months ahead.

Matchday experience and feedback 

I believe that matchday is about more than 80 minutes of rugby. Every season, we challenge ourselves as a club to take on board your feedback and implement several new fan centric initiatives to make Hive Stadium the best possible experience for you.

This season has been no different. At the end of last season, over 1,000 of you took the time and made the effort to complete our end of season survey. Over the summer, your responses have directly influenced changes in areas such as the fan-zone, the music we play, announcements, ball-delivery, our lightshow, and the player run-out sequence. They have also directly influenced operational changes in areas such as stewarding, directional signage, the food offering, the fan bar, parking, and the stadium clocks. Most of these changes will be in place for tonight’s match, and those that are not will be rolled out over the coming matches at Hive Stadium.

I don’t want us to stop here. After every match, we will continue to issue a matchday experience feedback survey to every fan who has attended. Please take the time to complete this survey and give us your feedback on what we can do better off the pitch  – because it matters.

Also, this season, we will have a “You Asked, We Listened” forum for our season ticket holders. This will be a monthly opportunity to send in your questions and feedback.  I will then do my best to personally answer as many of these as I can. Season ticket holders will receive an email in due course with details on how to get involved.

Non-season ticket holders can still feedback through the matchday survey – so as I say, please fill these in.

Our Burgh

I am incredibly proud of the work that went on from our community team over the summer. They completed close to 20 club visits in just an eight-week period, taking Edinburgh Rugby into schools, clubs and communities the length and breadth of our supporting regions. That work matters to us every bit as much as what happens on the pitch.

Those club visits were supplemented by the likes of our Summer Camps at Currie RFC and Boroughmuir RFC, our Schools Kicks programme, our Community Play initiative at Hive Stadium, and our award-nominated Tackle Maths initiative with Scottish Building Society. Our Community Takeovers will also continue this season, with clubs from all over the country travelling to Hive Stadium. Tonight, we welcome North Berwick RFC, and last season nearly 2,000 young players attended our games through this initiative.

Ally Donaldson

This week has brought the sad news of the sudden passing of former Edinburgh captain, Ally Donaldson.

Edinburgh cap number #911, Ally was a giant of the game in this city. Making his Edinburgh district debut in 1992, four years later,he was part of our first ever professional squad, captaining the team in 1997 and gaining his Scotland cap on the 1993 tour to the South Seas.

One of his biggest legacies in rugby came in what he gave back to the game across 36 years as a both a P.E. teacher and Director of Rugby at George Watson’s College, and as a title winning coach at Currie RFC.

Ally was a coach, mentor, and friend to many of our players and staff, and our thoughts are with Ally’s family and friends at this time. Tonight, we will pay tribute to Ally with a moment’s applause pre-game, so please be in your seats early as we celebrate the life of a true Edinburgh Rugby legend.

Thank you

Finally, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you once again.

Nobody at this club will ever take one single ticket, one single voice, or one single fan for granted.

Please get behind the team this season, as we move forward together to make the club that we all love the best it can be.

We Fight. We Care. We Grow.

Douglas Struth – Edinburgh Rugby Managing Director