It is now over four months since Mike Blair intimated he would be standing down at the end of the season. Blair, who spent two years in charge, sorted out his own future last week with the announcement that he was heading to Japan to work alongside Dave Rennie as attack coach at Kobe Steelers. It’s a bold step by the nation’s most capped scrum-half who spoke of his desire to move out of Scottish rugby’s “comfort zone”.

While Blair prepares to embark on an exciting new chapter, the process of recruiting his successor is moving at a pace akin to glacial, although two new names emerged yesterday with the RugbyPass outlet reporting that Les Kiss and Marius Goosen are on Edinburgh’s radar.

The club has time on its side, at least. Club rugby is going through what seems like its longest-ever close season. The capital side last played on April 21 when they rounded off a disappointing campaign with a defeat by Ulster to finish 12th in the United Rugby Championship. The 2023-24 season has been pencilled in to start on the weekend of October 21-22, a full six months after Edinburgh’s final game. It’s an extraordinary length of time for the club and its non-international players to be inactive and is a result of the league wanting to avoid a clash with the pool phase of the Rugby World Cup.

Les Kiss, who impressed with London Irish, has a background in Aussie rugby league. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Edinburgh have been keeping their players ticking over, bringing them in for a block of (pre-)pre-season training. This is taking place under the watchful eye of Steve Diamond, the experienced former Sale, Saracens and Worcester coach who was brought in by Edinburgh in March as ‘lead rugby consultant’, initially to work alongside Blair. Part of his remit was to compile a report on the state of the club and Diamond promised it would be “warts and all”.

Edinburgh then announced in early May that Diamond would be around “until at least August”. Mark Dodson, Scottish Rugby’s head honcho, has suggested it could be even longer. In April, he told the BBC that Diamond could be in charge at Edinburgh until November if the club’s new coach is working at the World Cup. Which begs the question, is Diamond also a genuine candidate? While he didn’t entirely rule out the prospect of taking over when arrived at the DAM Health in March, he did suggest his days of hands-on coaching were behind him. He envisaged his role being more as being a sounding board for the senior recruiters in the SRU and Edinburgh.

Diamond believes Edinburgh are “too nice” and presumably the club’s hierarchy has taken this on board. Kiss’ background is in Aussie rugby league, never a forum for shrinking violets, but the 58-year-old has proved himself adept at playing attractive rugby at London Irish as he kept pace with the Gallagher Premiership’s leading lights before the club went into administration. One club’s misfortune is another’s opportunity and Kiss is presumably now looking for a new role. A posting at Edinburgh, with Diamond remaining on board, could make sense for a club who need to regain the momentum and excitement evident in Blair’s first year in charge but which seeped away last season.

Les Kiss could revive Edinburgh but Steve Diamond’s hard edge can help

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