Blair Kinghorn will join Toulouse on a three-year contract next month, subject to medical after a six-figure compensation fee was agreed between Edinburgh and the French club.
He will first play his final Edinburgh home game tonight against Benetton and then also turn out for the team in the away match against Ulster next weekend.
Toulouse, who are five times European champions, announced the move yesterday afternoon, saying: “He has signed a three-year contract and will arrive on 4 December.” This season’s Champions Cup campaign kicks off the following weekend.
Edinburgh also confirmed the successful conclusion of negotiations, and included a statement from the 26-year-old, in which he admitted it will be a wrench to leave the team he has played for all of his professional life. “This has been a really tough decision,” said Kinghorn, who was under contract until the end of this season. “I’ve called this place home for nine years and have massive loyalty to this club.
“It gave me everything in my career so far and was the start of my professional rugby journey. I feel like they’ve really got the best out of me.
“Joining Toulouse is an opportunity that’s come forward that I think will be good for me as a person, and to develop my career and my game. It’s a big decision, but I feel like it’s the right move for me.
“I’m really grateful to Edinburgh, for seeing this as a great opportunity for me to develop personally and as a rugby player, but it is still going to be a sad day.
“It’s been a special journey and one that I’ve loved, and I can’t wait to run out there again this Friday night. It’s going to be really tough to leave, it’s going to be sad to say good-bye, but I’ll leave so grateful for everything here.”
Edinburgh senior coach Sean Everitt paid tribute to Kinghorn, and said that once the player made it clear he would not sign a new contract, it made sense to let him leave more or less straight away and try to make good use of the compensation fee.
“Blair is an Edinburgh boy through and through, a home-grown club centurion and Scotland internationalist – he’s certainly the type of quality player we’d have liked to retain,” Everitt said. “His intention to leave at the end of his current contract certainly played a part in our decision to agree to his premature release, as well as our well-documented strength and depth in the back three.
“It was on that basis we agreed reluctantly to this release in return for payment of a significant sum from Toulouse, which we’ll now consider carefully how best it can be reinvested in the club. We wish Blair all the very best in his new challenge in France and thank him for his commitment to the club.”
Meanwhile, on-loan Glasgow scrum-half Ali Price will make his first start for his new team after debuting off the bench in last week’s home win over the Bulls. The Scotland No 9 takes over from club captain Ben Vellacott, who drops to the bench in one of four changes to the starting line-up.
Matt Currie is at outside centre in place of Mark Bennett, who has a hamstring injury. Up front, Dave Cherry starts at hooker instead of Ewan Ashman, while Luke Crosbie returns at No 8 in place of Bill Mata, who is still undergoing his return-to-play protocols after being concussed last week. Stand-off Tim Swiel is set to make his debut off the bench, having recovered from the fractured ankle he sustained at a training session a couple of weeks after joining the squad in the close season.
Besides Bennett and Mata, 10 players are listed as unavailable due to injury, including back-three players Emiliano Boffelli and Darcy Graham, who are due back in action in the coming weeks.
Benetton, who have former Edinburgh and Scotland scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne on the bench, were unbeaten in this season’s URC until they lost to Glasgow last week. Edinburgh are fifth in the 16-team table - three places ahead of their opponents - after making it four wins out of five against the Bulls.
Edinburgh (v Benetton at Hive Stadium, tonight [Fri] 7.35pm): B Kinghorn; W Goosen, M Currie, J Lang, D van der Merwe; B Healy, A Price; P Schoeman, D Cherry, W Nel, G Young, G Gilchrist (captain), J Ritchie, C Boyle, L Crosbie. Replacements: E Ashman, B Venter, A Williams, M Sykes, T Dodd, B Vellacott, T Swiel, C Dean.
Benetton: R Smith; P Odogwu, M Fekitoa, M Zanon, I Mendy, J Umaga, A Uren, T Gallo, G Nicotera, G Zilocchi, E Iachizzi, E Snyman, A Izekor, M Lamaro (captain), L Cannone. Replacements: B Bernasconi, M Spagnolo, T Pasquali, R Favretto, T Halafihi, H Time-Stowers, S Hidalgo-Clyne, G da Re.
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa).
