THE mullet may be gone but the rest of him is back. Hamish Watson started  pre-season training with Edinburgh last week after a break following the Lions tour, and now the Scotland forward is looking ahead eagerly to the start of the United Rugby Championship.

Watson sat out yesterday’s friendly against Benetton and will need four or five weeks’ preparation before he resumes active service, meaning he will miss out on his team’s opening URC game on Saturday against Scarlets and the three or four fixtures which follow. It will be an impatient wait for the 29-year-old openside, who is sure the addition of the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers to the old PRO14 will have an energising effect on the competition.

“To have four of the best South African teams in the URC will be great,” said Watson, who got rid of his distinctive hairstyle at the end of the Lions tour. “And as long as Covid restrictions continue to be eased, we’ll have fans in the stadium, which will be awesome for players. 

“Some of the young boys haven’t played in front of crowds, and I haven’t played in front of crowds for a year and a half. So this is a great time for the fans to come back and to watch South African teams - it’s really exciting.” 

Isolated moments in the Lions tour could be described as “really exciting”, but on the whole the 2-1 series defeat was an underwhelming experience for players and supporters alike, due in the main to head coach Warren Gatland’s over-conservative game plan. The tour was certainly a source of frustration for Watson, especially the final fortnight in which he was omitted from the squad  for the two Tests which the tourists lost. His 25-minute appearance off the bench in the victorious first Test was therefore his only contribution to the series, and although he would not admit to any particular disgruntlement with the head coach, he clearly regards it as a missed opportunity.

“I’m not going to lie,” he continued. “I’m not going to sit here and be like ‘I wasn’t gutted at all’. I think everyone has a desire to be starting and playing every week, and I’m not just going to settle for getting one Test appearance.

“I’d be lying if I said I came back really happy. I was frustrated in the last two weeks. But I can also think, without talking myself up, that I had a good year leading up to it - a good few years leading up to it. I think I did everything I could have done to try and gain a starting spot. 

“Sometimes coaches just go for different players and that’s just the way it is - a coach likes someone more than another person, or likes what they bring more than another person. I feel like I did everything I could have done to put my best foot forward and try and get in the squad for the second and third weeks and that wasn’t the case.

“I was gutted about it, but also I don’t have any regrets thinking ‘If only I’d done this’ or ‘If only I’d done that’. Just sometimes coaches go with different players and that’s the way it is.”

Despite that disappointment, Watson, who turns 30 next month, is certain there were a lot of positives to be taken from his Lions experience. Not only does he believe he has improved individually, he is also convinced he can now contribute more to the Edinburgh squad too.

“I hope I’m a better player from the experience of a Lions tour, and there’s a lot of attitude stuff I can bring to training that I learned from the Lions. I’m not going to be holding sessions to do what the Lions did - I think it’s more like little tweaks and things to work on. 

“I was able to watch players from other nations and see how they operate - that will be good to bring back into camp, definitely for some of the younger players. Hopefully I can help them develop.”  

Edinburgh’s bread-and-butter competition will be different this season thanks to the inclusion of those South African sides, and when he returns to action in a month or so the team’s fans will see a new-look Watson, too, now that he has chopped off his trailing mane and adopted a more orthodox hairstyle. 

“It’s a bit weird, isn’t it?,” he said of his rug rethink. “It’s going to take some getting used to. But you know, all good things come to an end, and I think it was time to say goodbye to that chapter. I do miss it slightly, but I know my wife doesn’t. 

“When I’m on the field it’s great having the mullet, but I look a bit more presentable off it, I guess.”