Injury crisis is frustrating, admits Blair

MIKE BLAIR used to wonder how head coaches coped whenever an injury crisis started to mount at their club. He’s not wondering any more. This is Blair’s first season in charge of a team after making the switch from the Scotland national side where, whenever a player became unavailable, Gregor Townsend would simply call up someone of a similar calibre to replace them. At Edinburgh, Blair does not have that luxury. With Saturday’s European Challenge Cup quarter-final at home to Wasps in mind, he is quickly learning to make do and mend. ‘It’s an interesting one,’ said Blair. ‘It is frustrating to have so many guys out — we’ve probably got an international XV unavailable to us but it’s not something we can do too much about.’ Meanwhile, Scotland hooker Grant Stewart is among seven players who will be departing Glasgow this summer.