Edinburgh’s new attack coach Scott Mathie doesn’t think his star-studded side is too far away from running in the tries needed to win games, which was their big failing last season.

A back line that included British and Irish Lion Duhan van der Merwe failed to live up to expectations, and didn’t score enough touchdowns for the capital club to make the URC play-offs.

Rob Chrystie was mainly in charge of the faltering attack and has been moved to become ‘skills and off-the-ball coach' and Edinburgh 'A' head coach for the coming season. In his place comes South African Mathie, 41, a long-term friend of Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt, on a two-year deal as attack and backs coach.

Mathie, who joins the club from USA outfit New England Free Jacks, the team that he led to back-to-back MRL titles, has studied all of Edinburgh’s games from last season, and believes they are creating more than enough chances but their big failing has been their inability to finish them off. He indicated that increasing the speed of their attack could be all that is needed to ensure more tries are scored.

The former Blue Bulls, Sharks, Leeds Carnegie and Eastern Province Kings scrum-half certainly gave the impression he wants to create a faster-paced Edinburgh attack that can do more damage to the opposition than they did in the last league campaign.

“There are a lot of players with exceptional qualities and talent in this Edinburgh squad," said Mathie, whose grandfather on his father’s side is from Falkirk. "If we keep working on their skill sets and the speed at the breakdown, speed at the collision things will get better.

"These are things that will help us improve our finishing as generating speed through all aspects of the game, the contact area, on the edges, when you carry, is very important. We have the players with speed and it’s important we access that speed and ability."

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Mathie, in first interview since he was appointed said that when his pal Everitt - he coached his kids at school level back in South Africa - asked him to join his backroom staff at the capital club he was pushing at an open door.

"When Sean gave me a call to be involved with Edinburgh rugby I wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity like that," he said. "I have known him for a long time and we have had a lot of rugby conversations over coffee through the years. Edinburgh is a fantastic city, they are a great team with a lot of history so I am excited about the opportunity I have been given.

“Rugby in the States is still a growing game sprinkled with some special players from the Tier-Two nations but here we are playing in the URC. The standard here is higher, the detail is higher. All these things are more precise because we are dealing with international quality guys."

The man who was named the 2024 rugby coach of the year in the USA revealed first and foremost when he arrived at Edinburgh he had gone out of his way to meet the players to get to know what men like van der Merwe, Darcy Graham and Jamie Ritchie were like as people.

"To get the best out of anyone you have to ensure you understand them," he said. "It is about that personal connection and the care that goes into that. We are all people and people respond differently. It is about gaining trust and that does not happen overnight. That care connection is always first for me before we even start to talk about rugby."

Mathie is confident he can deal with the jump in the standard of player he is now coaching following his time in the USA and believes he can help bring out the best of his new charges.

"I am now working with world class players like Duhan van der Merwe," he said. "To be able to work with a player of that quality is awesome. He is a fellow countryman from South Africa and it is good to hear the accent.

"We have a pre-season match against Gloucester coming up then we host Leinster in our first URC game then are off to South Africa to play the Bulls then the Lions. The boys are excited by the challenge. Let’s not forget Edinburgh won eleven URC games last season so they are not far away and there are a lot of things we can build on."