Blair Kinghorn turned 25 yesteday and today was selected once in the Scotland squad for the 6 Nations.
On the face of it he is the only other 10 in the squad backing up Finn Russell.
He made his debut for Edinburgh on 24th October 2016 against Zebre and has now played 108 times for Edinburgh and has scored 244 points.
He was primarily thought of as a full back until he made his Scotland debut in 2018 off the bench on the wing replacing Tommy Seymour, He has gone on to represent his country 27 times and scored 59 points. The vast majority of his international career has been on the wing but he did line up at outside centre against Canada in June 2018.
He has also played full back for Scotland 8 times either as a starter or off the bench.
At the start of season 2021 -2022 the then new coach of Edinburgh shocked everyone by selecting Blair at stand off for their opening fixture against Scarlets.
This wasn't the first time he has represented his home town club at 10. The previous time being in the December 2017 destruction of Krasny 78-0 in the Challenge Cup. *
However despite the return to fitness of Jaco Van Der Walt, Mike Blair has continued to select Kinghorn at stand off when he's been available and that, dear reader, has well and truly divided the Scottish rugby cognoscenti.
Most Edinburgh fans are on board with the decision I think but the wider audience, casual or not, friendly or not are at best on the fence.
That said many of those pointing their rugby knowledge in Blairs direction have had an issue with him regardless of where he has played. The very same people who praise Finn Russell for his ability to shrug off mistakes and put them behind him accuse Blair of being lackadaisical and uncommitted for displaying very similar body language.
Through gritted teeth they will admit he has played reasonably well at 10 this season but always qualify that grudged praise by pointing out Edinburgh haven’t played anyone. Like the player has control over the fixture list. What they don’t do is acknowledge that before the start of this season had played 1 game at stand off in 5 years and yet is Edinburgh’s top scorer this season. More about that later.
The fact that National coach Gregor Townsend and his erstwhile 2nd in charge Mike Blair have both decided he can do a job at 10 doesn’t alter that criticism.
Former Glasgow Centre Pete Horne when questioned recently about Blairs suitability at stand off said on the BBC Scotland Rugby podcast, “I don't think he realises how good he is. For someone like Blair the sky’s the limit. He's one of the best athletes I've ever seen. He’s got the skill set to step in at play at 10”.
With Kinghorn at 10 this season Edinburgh have scored almost twice as many points per minute as they have when he's been on the wing
I can't quote this stat without acknowledging that the minutes on the wing have invariably come in the latter stages of the game. However add to this the fact that with Blair in the team regardless of position their win ratio this season has been 83%. That ratio drops to 50% when he doesn't play.
Some criticism has been levelled at Kinghorn at his stats off the tee and a success rate of 67% in that facet of his game perhaps isn’t the best, but take a look at the chart below and you’ll get a sense of where he’s had to take most of these kicks from. It’s no coincidence that almost 50% of Edinburgh’s tries this season have been scored by back three players who, drum roll, usually score out wide. Put into context, Beauden Barrett’s kick accuracy is 72% and something tells me he gets a lot more practice than Blair ever will.
Blair Kinghorn’s kicking from hand however is second to none. His touch finders are accurate and lengthy and his restarts usually come back down with snow on. Pete Horne, again in that BBC Scotland podcast said that Blair regularly hit the roof at Oriam when practising. That’s impressive and means that his restarts are almost always contestable.
So in summary.
He is only 25
He has played fullback, wing and Stand off for both Edinburgh and Scotland and has scored tries in all of those positions. He has also played centre on one occasion for Scotland
He is an Edinburgh centurion and has played 27 times for Scotland .
He scored the first hat trick in over 30 years whilst playing for Scotland against Italy.
No one at Edinburgh currently has scored more tries for the club than he has (27)
He was named in the PRO14 dream team in only his second full season in 2017/2018
He is Edinburgh’s top scorer this season. Edinburgh are top of the URC.
All I can add is that it must be great to be that shit at rugby.
*Thanks to Andy Holmes on the Edinburgh Fans Forum on FB for reminding me that Blair played 10 in the last two games of season 2020-2021. I had obviously tried to erase last year from my memory!
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