Local boy and former pupil of Corstorphine Primary then Royal High School, Sam took up rugby at the Forrester club, a stone's throw from Edinburgh's home ground. He won a scholarship to the city's Merchiston Castle School, playing as stand-off before turning to scrum-half and joining Edinburgh's Elite Development programme.
A Macphail scholar in 2013, he benefited from a summer honing his skills in New Zealand at Canterbury's high performance unit, returning to contest a place in the squad and made his Edinburgh Rugby debut against Munster in September 2013.
He said: "Becoming a scrum half and being sixth choice in the club was challenging at the time but then managing to push through in a relatively short space of time was brilliant."
Taking on kicking duties midway through the 2014/15 season, Sam's accuracy with the boot, in dreadful weather conditions, nailed Edinburgh's win away over Connacht in January 2015.
Better was yet to come that month when an outstanding man-of-the-match performance saw him take the club European points record (28) with two tries, three conversions and four penalties in the win over Bordeaux-Begles at BT Murrayfield to put Edinburgh into the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
Sam rounded off his breakthrough season with the award of Guinness PRO12 Young Player of the Year, having earlier made his Scotland debut against France at the Stade de France and continuing to be involved in last year's Rugby World Cup, where he came on against South Africa.
He added: "Winning the 1872 Scottish Cup last year and backing it up this year was amazing; getting to the European final last season, showing that as a club we were going in the right direction and aiming to go one further this season will be important.
"Hodgey [assistant coach Duncan Hodge] coming in to coach the backs has been a great bonus, aiming for Champions Cup rugby and to stay in the top four in the league is a big thing for the club and I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years."
Head coach Alan Solomons said: "I am delighted that Sam will continue his progress with us. He is an exceptionally talented young player, who, I believe, has a great future in the game. I enjoy working with him and am pleased that I can continue to do so."
Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
Scrum half
Born: 4 August 1993 in Granada, Spain
Height: 5ft 9in
Weight: 13st 9lb
Caps: 46
Points: 256 (4 tries, 34 conversions, 56 penalties)
Guinness PRO12 Edinburgh News
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