World Cup played a huge part inwatson’s decision
Unfinished business is a major factor in Hamish Wa t s o n staying with Edinburgh.
The all- action openside flanker, already a decade with the capital club, has penned a new deal that will take him up to and beyond the next Rugby World Cup.
Watson narrowly missed out on RWC2015, and then saw his time on the game’s highest stage cruelly cut short when a knee injury ended his tournament before half-time in Scotland’s opener against Ireland in Japan four years later.
Now the 29-year-old reckons staying with Edinburgh, rather than taking up a potentially more- lucrative contract in France, will give him a better chance of playing over there in 2023.
“That comes into your thinking. If you go to France, you might have to give up international stuff, and that’s a massive factor,” said Watson, who admitted he’d gone “quite far down the line” in discussions with clubs in both the Top 14 and English Premiership.
“To be at Edinburgh, it gives me a great chance to hopefully make the next RWC. The last one was pretty devastating for me and I was involved in the 2015 pre-rwc stuff, a couple of Tests before we went away, but didn’t make the squad.
“I ’v e been there or thereabouts for the last two and only got one appearance. If I would have gone away, I might not have made the RWC squad in France.”
For the World Cup read Edinburgh, too, as despite the Gunners’ lacklustre start to this strangest of seasons, Watson added: “I believe in this group of players. I believe we can do something and I still feel like we’ve got some unfinished business here.
“Winning some silverware, that’s my ambition as an Edinburgh player.
“Every rugby player wants to win something in their career, and I want to do it with Edinburgh. It’s not my hometown club but it’s pretty close to it.
“I’ve been here since I was a teenager, and it’s something I want to do here since it’s my only pro club. I’ve never been anywhere else.
“We are starting to get to the business end of competitions regularly, which is certainly something we didn’t do towards the start of my time at Edinburgh.
“We are getting to quarterfinals, we are getting to semifinals and that’s what it’s all about and what the fans want to see.
“The more we can do that, like we have done under Richard
Cockerill for the last three seasons, the more confidence will build.
“Sometimes you need these experiences to then come to these games and, having been here before, hopefully be on the right side of some of those results.
“It’s up to me over the next three years to prove myself again, and hopefully get to the business end of competitions and start winning stuff.”
Wa t s o n’s position and abrasive style of play take their toll on the body, and part of his thinking is that while English and French clubs tend to flog their players, the SRU strictly limits the demands placed on their Test stars by the two Scottish pro teams.
“You consider all these factors
when you’re looking elsewhere and looking to go to other clubs,” he nodded.
“The good thing about staying at your union, if you are playing well for your club team, you will hopefully get picked for the national team.
“If that is the case, then you do tend to get looked after by the union which does help, especially in long seasons like the one we’re going to have, playing in double competitions with the Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup.
“Those little weekends off during the Six Nations do help.
“I guess some players, if they get those offers, then that is the risk you take. You will go to France or England and you know you are not going to get looked after quite as well.”