With shiny new contracts being thrown around like confetti at a wedding, Scottish Rugby have recently renewed their vows with both Gregor Townsend and Franco Smith.
For richer or poorer, Scotland will stick with Townsend until the World Cup in 2027, with Smith’s extension at Glasgow Warriors running until 2028.
It wasn’t just a new contract Smith should have been handed. It should have been a promotion to replace Townsend as Scotland’s new head coach. But that’s a different argument for a different day.
With the new United Rugby Championship season now up and running, the focus should be on where exactly all of this leaves Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt.
Seemingly the odd one out of the SRU’s triumvirate of head coaches, it’s not a contract renewal that’s coming Everitt’s way. Instead, it’s more likely to be the divorce papers.
In losing their opening game of the season 31-28 away to Zebre Parma last weekend, Edinburgh started the new campaign in calamitous fashion.
Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt has thus far not been awarded a new contract
Edinburgh started their season with a painful loss away to Italian side Zebre
Everitt has never quite found the answers to Edinburgh’s problems during his two years in charge
Zebre are not quite the whipping boys they used to be, but they still finish bottom of the league far more often than not.
They played 30 – yes, *thirty*- minutes of last weekend’s match with only 14 players. That Edinburgh had a numerical advantage for almost half the match and still lost should be a source of embarrassment.
But this is about more than just one match. It is about Edinburgh’s continued stagnation under Everitt, a head coach who has rarely convinced from the moment he arrived.
The South African was appointed two years ago at the start of the 2023-24 season, after the weird dalliance with Steve Diamond.
On the official announcement on their club website, Edinburgh billed Everitt as an attack and backline specialist, promising an exciting and attractive brand of rugby.
As he embarks on his third full season in the job, there has been precious little evidence of that. There is no obvious identity to Edinburgh, no style of play, and no real gameplan to speak of.
Even blessed with two world-class wingers in Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham, Edinburgh have largely been a tough watch under Everitt.
Injury problems have played a part. But, even when fit, both Van der Merwe and Graham haven’t seen the ball anywhere near as much as they should have done over these past couple of seasons.
Which might make you think that Edinburgh are more of a set-piece team who beat opponents in the trenches up front. But they don’t really do that either.
There is a softness and a fragility to them. That’s been true of many Edinburgh teams over the years, but not many head coaches have had the same talent that Everitt’s had at his disposal.
Even accounting for the loss of Jamie Ritchie, Bill Mata and Blair Kinghorn over the past couple of years, there’s still a lot of good players at Edinburgh.
Against Zebre last weekend, they still had the likes of Grant Gilchrist, Hamish Watson, Magnus Bradbury, Luke Crosbie, Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Sam Skinner, and Van der Merwe.
Right there, that’s a group of players who have bucketloads of experience at the top level with Scotland. So, at club level, why do the continue to falter so badly?
Everitt insists he is not worried about his own future, whilst also expressing a desire to stay beyond the expiry of his current deal next summer.
After reaching the URC play-offs and the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup last season, he viewed that as solid progress and a platform on which to build.
Some have questioned why he wasn’t handed a new deal in the summer in the way that Townsend and Smith were both tied down by the SRU.
But the reality is that Everitt has done absolutely nothing to warrant a new contract. Quiet now! No laughing in the back about how the very same thing could be said of Townsend…
Edinburgh fold in big moments. Now two years into the job, Everitt has done nothing to instil an identity or style of play, despite being blessed with a squad which is the equal of Glasgow’s.
Franco Smith and Gregor Townsend have been awarded new deals… but not Everitt
It’s actually remarkable that he has even made it this far. When he got the job a couple of years ago, Everitt only ever looked like a short-term stop-gap appointment.
But, by persisting with him, the SRU are continuing to sell Edinburgh fans short. We’re only one game in and already it looks like another season of misery and mediocrity awaits them.
The best thing Edinburgh fans could do to effect change would be to stay away. Empty seats matter far more in Scottish club rugby than they do in football.
If walk-up fans stop attending games and boosting ticket sales, you can guarantee the SRU would sit up and take notice.
Maybe fans don’t really care that much. There is a happy-clappy culture within some supporters in Scottish rugby; happy to have a day out and enjoy a drink, but not emotionally invested in the result.
That mentality extends to the national team, as well. There are too many folk who go to rugby matches who actually couldn’t care less about the result as long as they get to celebrate the odd Scotland try.
This isn’t just true of supporters. Some of these people even sit in the directors’ box, too.
But there should be greater accountability within Scottish Rugby. A willingness to hold people to higher standards.
Edinburgh deserve better than what has been served up during Everitt’s reign. They are serial under-performers and, once again, this season is on a road to nowhere.
