Moffat preparing for glorious Greenyards return

Edinburgh assistant coach Moffat is a former Melrosian and recorded 256 appearances for the Greenyards-based club before coaching the team to success in the early 1990's.

Now the 51-year-old says he is looking forward to working with the squad in familiar surroundings and helping to fuel the local youngsters' enthusiasm for the game with a coaching session.

Moffat said: "I've got lots of happy memories of being at the Greenyards. As a young kid, I played in the Crichton Cup when I was about five or six years old and that was my first experience of rugby.

"That tournament always took place and it still does to this day. I was brought up in a village called Garnock which is about less than a mile from the Greenyards.

"My Dad used to take me along to the Greenyards, so it was natural that I wanted to play for that club.

"I played over 250 games for Melrose and I coached there for seven years; I was assistant to Jim Telfer.

"I've got a lot of good memories of the Greenyards and I go back there whenever I can. I was very fortunate to be associated with such a successful club.

"When you look at the size of the town, it has a population of less than 3,000 people, but the number of internationalists that have come from there is amazing.

"Craig Chalmers, Bryan Redpath, Graham Shiel, Doddie Weir, all these guys became international players and Melrose is still producing good young players."

The training session will be accessible to the area's youngsters to watch and they will also receive special tuition from the professional players and coaches afterwards; something that Moffat believes will have a big impact on their rugby.

He added: "The local youngsters there are very knowledgeable about rugby; they will all know Mike Blair, Ally Hogg and Chris Paterson.

"They normally watch these players on TV and they will turn out in force on Tuesday. It is good for them to be able to see their heroes in the flesh and watch them train."

Edinburgh junior season tickets (for under-18's) are available at the great value of price of just £30 which includes admission to nine home Magners League matches (plus the away match at Glasgow), three Heineken Cup Pool games and the pre-season friendly match against London Wasps on Saturday 23 August, kick off 2.30pm.