Ex-Scotland rugby captain John Barclay to leave Edinburgh

Former Scotland captain John Barclay will leave Edinburgh this summer, head coach Richard Cockerill has revealed.

After rupturing his achilles during his first season in the capital, Barclay only managed 14 appearances for the club.

The back-row made Gregor Townsend’s Scotland squad for the World Cup last year having recovered from injury.

Barclay called time on his national team career after the tournament.

The 33-year-old found game time hard to come by with Edinburgh, however, with stiff competition for places in the back row.

With the rugby season paused because of the coronavirus pandemic, Barclay has likely made his last appearance for Edinburgh.

Head coach Cockerill said: “John will not be with us next season. Unless we play before July 1 I would assume that he has played his last game unfortunately.

“When he has been fit and available, he has a lot of experience and he has played well for us. But we do have a fantastic stable of young Scottish back-rowers who are coming through and the evolution of the squad is such that the back row is a very competitive position with lots of young players there.

“We’d like to thank John for his hard work. I think he has every intention of playing on, as far as I know.”

With rugby on hold, Cockerill has had time to focus on recruitment for next season.

The Edinburgh coach doesn’t expect much more activity from his side, though.

“We are probably about 95 per cent done recruitment-wise,” he added.

“If we don’t recruit another player between now and the start of next season we’ll be more than happy with what we’ve got.”