Alan Solomons, the Edinburgh head coach, has ignored criticism of his international signing policy and appointed Mike Coman, one of his imports, as club captain, with Grant Gilchrist, who led Scotland on their summer tour, as his deputy.
“Everybody who plays for Edinburgh, is just a member of Edinburgh; I don’t draw any distinction, I won’t discriminate in any way,” Solomons said. “As far as the team is concerned they are all Edinburgh players, though that does not impact in any way on our vision to build a sustainable club by developing indigenous talent.”
In many ways, the decision to hand the job to Coman has echoes of 12 years ago when Edinburgh, then, as now, in a rebuilding phase, brought Todd Blackadder over from New Zealand. Like Blackadder — currently head coach at the Crusaders, this year’s Super Rugby runners-up — Coman arrived from New Zealand in mid-season, established himself in the side over the rest of that campaign and has taken the reins at the start of the next.
The echoes go further. Both are 6ft 4in, weigh a bit more than 17st and are products of the highly competitive Canterbury breeding ground in New Zealand. They arrived in Scotland with high reputations as leaders, having captained all the teams they had played for and are even likely to end up playing the same blindside flanker role, though Coman feels marginally more comfortable at No 8.
The big difference, however, is their playing records. While Blackadder captained the All Blacks in ten of his 12 international caps and played more than 70 times for the Crusaders, Coman arrived from Hawke’s Bay, failed to establish himself in Super Rugby and was nowhere near the international side.
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Solomons accepts the parallels and hopes they work just as well as they did more than a decade ago: “Mike is cut from the same cloth,” he said. “Todd is a very down to earth person who knows and understands his rugby. They are the same types of people. From that perspective you can draw parallels.
“Their playing careers have been different but as a person, Mike will add huge value wherever he goes and will add huge value here — I have been most impressed with him. I have a lot of friends in New Zealand rugby and speaking to them before he arrived I knew he was held in high regard, particularly regarding his leadership.”
In the end, it was a matter of experience. While Coman, who will celebrate his 27th birthday later this month, was struggling to remember when he first led a side — somewhere around under-16 level he thought — Gilchrist, the 24-year-old lock and heir apparent, was not even running the lineout, his specialist area, a year ago.
“When I arrived at Edinburgh, Grant [Gilchrist] was not part of any leadership group. He had no leadership role to play in the team, but midway through the season, after observing him, I started to think he had leadership ability and we got him calling the lineouts. He started growing in confidence and he was identified as one of the leadership group for this season,” Solomons said.
Coman admitted that though the job had been offered only this week, it came as no surprise after leading the team in eight of his ten starts last season. “I suppose I have been talking to Alan [Solomons] about it for a while,” he said. “There was an early indication that I might be in line for the job when I was asked to captain the side when Greig Laidlaw [last season’s captain] was away [on international duty].
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“I am not Scottish qualified and this is a Scottish club, so I knew that would be mentioned, but it is not something that worries me. I have been doing captaincy roles for a long time and New Zealand rugby is the most competitive in the world, I am reasonably old now, I have played in a lot of games in high-pressure situations and have learned to stay reasonably calm and make the right decisions.
“I take pride in making sure my performances are consistent and that off-field you are as professional as you can be. It is case of keeping guys organised and driving high standards.”