It’s elementary as Watson goes up against his mate
There’s no rest for the wicked, they say.
Now, I’m not suggesting Hamish Watson is wicked, though you do have to have more than a bit of “dog” in you to be a top-class openside, as he most certainly is.
But after a busy autumn Test series with Scotland, Watson will face Newcastle Falcons in the second leg of Edinburgh’s European Cup double-header this afternoon, before back-toback games either side of Christmas Day against arch rivals Glasgow for the 1872 Cup. Then he’ll be back in dark blue for the 6 Nations.
“Going in to the first Newcastle game was quite tough, coming back from the Scotland stuff last week,” admits the all-action back row.
“But the Edinburgh coaching staff have done a really good job, making sure we are all rested and doing enough training.
“We also had a day off on Friday so we’ll go into this game all guns blazing and fresh and then we’ve got the two games against Glasgow which are going to be really tough.
“We’ve got days off around the 1872 matches, so we have a bit of downtime to relax with our families over Christmas which will be nice.
“It’s quite tough over Christmas. You can’t really fully turn off because we’ll be training Christmas Eve, then Boxing Day afternoon.
“That’s makes it a slightly different mental challenge for all the boys, but we are used to it. If you have any kind of job in professional sport then that’s what happens and mentally, that’s something you just have to overcome.”
The Scotland coaches will be keeping a close eye on this afternoon’s game as three contenders for the openside shirt are involved.
Falcons are fielding Watson’ former rival for the Edinburgh shirt John Hardie, while Gary Graham, who trained with the autumn Test squad, is on their bench.
“We know how good Hards is, he is an aggressive, physical player and his defence is very strong,” admits 27-year-old Watson.
“He was at Edinburgh for a couple of years and is a good mate of mine so to play against him will be good.
“It was good for me to have another No. 7 around that pushed me and it was good to have that rivalry – we pushed and encouraged each other. It is an extra bite to proceedings because it is against an old mate but I don’t look at it in a Scotland context.
“We have respect for each other. The Scotland coaches may look at it as a rivalry for the No. 7 jersey, but if you get yourself too caught up in trying to claim that then you won’t do your job well for Edinburgh.
“I haven’t spoken to John this week about this game, but we keep in quite close contact. I messaged him ahead of his first Newcastle start and he messaged me when my daughter was born.
“Hopefully we can have a good laugh and a catch-up after the game.”