Pre-season friendlies can often be tame, languid affairs as players ease their way back in gently in matches where the result has no consequence, usually resulting in an occasion with all the competitiveness and intensity of a training exercise.

Not where Ben Muncaster is concerned. Even a few days out from Edinburgh’s sole pre-season fixture at home to Gloucester on Friday night, the back-rower is evidently already fairly pumped-up as he looks ahead to the run-out at Hive Stadium as if it were the URC final itself.

The 22-year-old, though, has more reasons than most for being keen to usher in a new campaign and leave the old one behind. Muncaster played just three times for Edinburgh last season due to a wretched run of injuries and then not being selected when fit again, that lack of action also denying him the chance of travelling with Scotland on their summer tour.

Don’t look back in anger? Well, maybe. But Muncaster is clearly still frustrated at that stalling of his professional development and eager to get going. Friday's game, you suspect, is one he’s had circled in his calendar for quite some time.

“We had an internal hit out last Thursday, which was good fun – but now it is a proper game and all eyes are set for Gloucester,” he confirms excitedly. “Individually, it is a bit of make-or-break year for me.

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“Listen, adversity came my way [last season]. I did my PCL [posterior cruciate ligament in the knee], came back for a couple of games and started playing well, then did my foot and I couldn’t really hit the ground running after that which was extremely frustrating.

“Then I missed out on the summer tour, which I was absolutely gutted about, but I’m here now, I’m going to be playing against Gloucester so that’s all I’m focussing on.

“Adversity makes or breaks players, and I feel I mentally a lot stronger and also a lot more knowledgeable about the game.

“Obviously I didn’t get as much game-time last year as I would have liked, but, hey-ho, it’s one of those things and you’ve just got to move on from it and now we are onto this season.”

That Muncaster is also out of contract at the end of this season is perhaps another factor in his impatience to get going but he’s not stressing about it unduly at this stage.

Ben Muncaster during an Edinburgh rugby training session at Hive StadiumBen Muncaster during an Edinburgh rugby training session at Hive Stadium (Image: Mark Scates - SNS Group)

“I’m pretty sure there are about 27 boys out of contract,” he adds with a hint of exaggeration. “So, this start of the season is coming to be important for us, not just in the league but individually as well. I mean it give that extra bit of pressure, but I absolutely love that, so we’ll see what happens.”

Muncaster at least had something to take his mind off his year spent rehabbing and getting restless, having enrolled at university to undertake an Economics degree. 

“I do a bit of uni on the side, part-time at Heriot-Watt,” he reveals. “I’m on a scholarship there and they’ve been extremely flexible in that I don’t always have to go into all the lectures as long as I get the work done. So, yeah, it is that and then coming in here and trying to get the absolute most out of every day.

“I’m absolutely loving it. I’ve got about four years to go – I am part-time so it is tough. I think it challenges your self-discipline off the pitch and your time-management, and it helps take your mind off rugby as well and sometimes that is needed.”

Muncaster wasn’t available when Gloucester came to Edinburgh at the start of the year on Challenge Cup duty, the Premiership side winning that one by a single point. There will be nothing at stake this time around but, with the league opener against Leinster not far away, Muncaster is convinced nobody will be going at it half-heartedly.

“I didn’t play in that one,” he confirms. “It was a 21-20 defeat, I believe – one of the games we should have won and they ended up beating us here when we definitely should have won that game.

“Harry Paterson played really well, bumped Louis Rees-Zammit, so it was pretty cool one of my best pals doing that.

“I think the squad now is extremely competitive in a number of positions – we’ve got very few injuries so everyone is absolutely fighting for a starting position.

“Obviously Gloucester is the next game but Leinster under the Friday night lights in about a week and a half, what an opportunity and everybody would love to be a part of that. So we’ll just see what happens.”