Grant Gilchrist agrees Edinburgh contract extension

03/26/2025 11:00 AM

GRANT Gilchrist has insisted that he is “as determined as ever” to help Edinburgh be successful after agreeing a one-year contract extension with the team he joined in 2011. Now 34, the Scotland lock is convinced that the club have made progress this season and have a genuine chance of winning silverware.

"I think I've always made it clear that this has been home for me,” he said at a Hive Stadium press conference. “Obviously when you come to the end of any contract it's uncertain. The club made it clear that they were keen to have me around, and for me it was a no-brainer. I feel I've still got a lot to give, on and off the field, and I can be part of driving this club forward.

"We've had a few false starts over my time here, and I'm still as determined as ever that we can get it right. So: another year, and who knows beyond that. I'm still enjoying my rugby, and I don't have any real plans to retire just yet."

In the decade and a half that Gilchrist has been an Edinburgh employee, the club have enjoyed sporadic good spells punctuated by slumps, and there remains a sense that, given the talent within the squad, they are serious under-achievers. But, while insisting he is taking nothing for granted, the second-row is convinced that the team are better now – and hence closer to winning a trophy – than they were a year ago.

"I think so,” he said. “Well, the proof will be in the next two months – ask me that in June. It's up to us and the guys we've got in the room. I've got full belief. I wouldn’t be here doing what we do and the work that we put in week after week if I didn’t think we were good enough.

"Obviously it's so competitive. You look at the URC, the EPCR, the quality of the teams – it's such fine margins. So we're going to need to be right at the top of our game. But we've just got to keep working as we are. The opportunity is there, that's for sure.

"I think we've shown through the year in our good performances that when we translate the work that the coaches do on to the pitch, it results in strong performances and most of the time in good wins. So it's about the players making sure that we take ownership every week, and I think if we do that, then it's on us.

"The opportunity to win a trophy this season is real. It's not fake, it's not asking for miracles. These will all be winnable games for this team with the group that we've got, the players that we have. It's about can we make it consistent? That's on us between now and the end of the season.”

With five regular-season games to go in the URC, Edinburgh are still firmly in the hunt for the play-offs, but suffered a blow last week when a try in the dying minutes consigned them to a narrow defeat at Benetton. "It was a tough one to take at the weekend, but there were a lot of positives from that performance,” Gilchrist accepted. “We were 90 seconds off a really strong win in a tough place to go. It was disappointing that we didn't get it, but going forward it's still in our own hands.

"It's so competitive, and if you're off it for one second, teams will punish you. That's the game: can you concentrate for 80 minutes? Can you deliver your game plan with physicality and intensity for 80 minutes? 

"Look at how tight the league is. The winning margins at the weekend – there was a point here or there in almost every game. So that's going to tell you that it's not going to be lapses of concentration for 20 minutes, it's going to be one or two moments. The same in our game – one or two moments and the whole game is completely different. So we've just got to train that, and in games as players be really conscious that every action really counts."

Head coach Sean Everitt said: “Grant is the epitome of a one-club man, and his unwavering commitment to Edinburgh Rugby is inspiring. Grant is a true leader of men, and his desire to achieve something special with Edinburgh is infectious.

"It’s brilliant news to retain a player of Grant’s calibre, who continues to perform at the very top of his game. His experience and leadership are invaluable to our squad, and we are delighted to have him with us for another season.”

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