THOUGH Alan Solomons, the Edinburgh coach, has come in for criticism for his foreign signing policy, in practice his time in charge has been more notable for his willingness to gamble on young Scottish players who he thinks can make the grade.
The latest example comes in Connacht later today when he gives a first start to 18-year-old Blair Kinghorn at full back after impressing in a 10-minute cameo against Zebre last week, even though the team are facing one of their toughest challenges of the season as they try to prove their Italian defeat was a blip.
Solomons is also able to give a first start of the season to Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, who went to the World Cup but found himself confined to a fringe role and is starting his playing season only now. With so much strength in depth in the back row, he can tinker with that but, with those exceptions, the players who failed in Parma are given a chance to redeem themselves.
Kinghorn is a player who Solomons thinks can go all the way. "Blair is an amazing young man," Solomons enthused. "He was in school last year, he is barely 18 and he is phlegmatic, calm, composed. Nothing seems to bother him.
"At the beginning, fitting in with everyone that was a little bit hard, but in the environment we have here we don't have cliques about one guy being older than another, everyone just gets on. He is pretty comfortable in the environment and looks good in practice. It was nice to get him on for those 10 minutes and he has talent, there is no doubt about that. Sometimes you have to take a little bit of a chance but I think the guy can handle himself."
There is certainly no lack of confidence – he was happy to step up and attempt a penalty from inside his own half to try to rescue a losing bonus point last week, though it landed inches short. "He has a hell of a boot, he probably did not get hold of that one properly," Solomons added.
After four successive wins, the wheels came off a bit last week, and now the players are desperate to show that was only a blip. "There are no easy games in this league and Connacht is one of the tougher ones, so the boys have to be at it from the first minute - we are focused," was a typical reaction coming from Fraser McKenzie, the lock.
Connacht: T O'Halloran; D Laeder, B Aki, C Ronaldson, M Healy; J Carty, K Marmion; D Buckley, T McCartney, R Ah You, A Muldowney, A Browne, J Muldoon (C), N Fox-Matamua, E Masterson. Replacements: D Heffernan, F Bealham, N White, Q Roux, E McKeon, I Porter, R Parata, N Adeolokun.
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, C Dean, S Beard, W Helu; P Burleigh, S Hidalgo-Clyne; R Sutherland, N Cochrane, J Andress, A Bresler, F McKenzie, M Coman (C), R Grant, N Manu. Replacements: G Turner, A Dell, S Berghan, A Toolis, C Du Preez, S Kennedy, D Fife, N McLennan.
Referee: L Hodges (Wales)
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