Scotland centre Scott switches back to Premiership

EDINBURGH centre Matt Scott will join Leicester at the end of the season.

The 29-year-old, who has 39 Scotland caps, returned to Edinburgh in 2018 after two seasons with Gloucester.

Scott said: “It’s a team I watched growing up, winning a lot, and if someone told me as a teenager that I would play for Tigers, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

Leicester head coach Geordan Murphy, who will be replaced by Steve Borthiwck on July 1 and switch to director of rugby, said: “Matt is an experienced international who will add vital depth to our squad.”

Murphy has released wing Jonah Holmes from the final year of his contract. The 27-year-old Wales cap has played 45 matches in a three-year stint and will join Dragons.

Meanwhile, Leicester prop Ellis Genge intends to set up a new players’ union aimed to protect their commercial and legal interests.

Genge feels players were “poorly advised” over measures taken by clubs as a result of Covid-19. The England

loosehead, 25, says the new organisation would be independently funded to avoid conflicts of interest.

“We wouldn’t have to answer to a governing body,” Genge said on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast, adding that he is not trying to replace the RPA.

However, Genge feels the RPA is compromised because of the funding it receives from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby (PRL), and as a result it “can’t bite the hand that feeds”.

He added: “We are not making a new RPA. They do really good stuff with welfare in rugby... but I do feel people were poorly advised (over the pay cuts). People were advised from the off to sign the contracts without reading them, almost. Commercially, I didn’t think everyone was being represented very well.

“So I am trying to put together a players’ union. It is not to replace the RPA or to combat the RFU. Honestly, it is nothing of the sort.

“It is just so people can get good advice from trusted professionals around commercial and legal (issues).”