Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt has admitted that the future of Fijian No 8 Viliame Mata is out of his hands after reports emerged linking the 32-year-old with a move to Bristol Bears.
Mata has been with Edinburgh since 2016, and Everitt knows he may lack the funds to compete with offers from the English Premiership for a player who has been said to earn £450,000 a year.
“It depends what the offer is and the finances involved,” he said when asked if it would be worth keeping Mata. “As a person we would be delighted to keep him here - he is well liked in the squad and that plays a big part in trying to keep someone here and gives us hope.
“But at the end of the day we are not in control of the finances. Whatever comes of it, we’ll support him either way.
“It would be great if Edinburgh could keep him. But we just don't know at this stage what the final offers are.”
When Toulouse bought out Blair Kinghorn’s contract recently, Everitt expressed the hope that he would be able to reinvest that money in his squad. Scottish Rugby, who own Edinburgh, said the French club had paid “a six-figure sum”.
Meanwhile, Scotland winger Darcy Graham could make his comeback from a hip injury in the team’s Challenge Cup tie at home to Castres on Saturday.
Argentine full-back Emiliano Boffelli, who has also yet to play since the World Cup because of a foot injury, is on track to return to action in the first leg of the 1872 Cup double-header against Glasgow at Scotstoun a week on Friday.
Edinburgh announced yesterday that they have sold more than 20,000 tickets for the return leg against the Warriors at Murrayfield on Saturday 30th. They are now hopeful of beating the attendance record for the fixture - 27,437, set in 2019.
