Scotland forward cites cultural change after penning new Edinburgh deal

Dave Cherry is delighted to have re-signed for Edinburgh as he believes they are a club on the march. The 31-year-old hooker, who joined in the summer of 2018, believes the positive vibe within Mike Blair’s high-flying team is helping bring out the best in him.

Cherry admits it was an easy decision to commit to the DAM Health Stadium club for next season.

He said: “Obviously there’s been big changes at Edinburgh and I’m really enjoying it. I think the club’s heading in the right direction so it’s somewhere I want to be. I’m delighted to have re-signed and I’m looking forward to where the club goes from here.

“I think my performances have been fairly good of late. We’ve also got a lot of competition in the hooker department now but I just want to have the starting jersey.

“I want to push myself and push my team-mates. The culture’s great here and I think that’s driving the standards of each and every player in the squad.”

Head coach Blair was delighted to get an experienced player tied up.

“Dave has really cemented himself as an important leader in our squad, so we’re delighted to retain the services of a player who is integral to our plans moving forward,” Blair said.

“I’ve been impressed with Dave this season and also during my time with Scotland. It was fantastic to see him play so well for his country having worked so hard to get his breakthrough at international level.”

Edinburgh have had a four-week break since their stunning Challenge Cup win away to Saracens last month after their two games against Glasgow over the festive period were postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the Scotstoun ranks.

Cherry is looking forward to the prospect of returning to action in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match at home to Cardiff.

He said: “The last few weeks have been frustrating for players and also for fans. We’re so far into this pandemic now, I think people expect things like this to happen.

“It’s frustrating because we had a good run of performances, especially the Saracens game, and we wanted to take that into the Glasgow games but it’s out of our control.

“We just have to get on with it. Playing regularly is key to performances so you want to be playing every week but we’re training well as a squad and hopefully against Cardiff we’ll perform well.”

Edinburgh are second in the URC table and have won each of their last five games in all competitions.

Cherry added: “It’s been a successful season so far. We had big changes at the start but everyone’s bought into it and I think you can see by the performances and how people are expressing themselves and playing good rugby that everyone’s enjoying themselves.”