Edinburgh's Wes Goosen ready to take his game to new heights

After an injury-hit debut season, the former Hurricanes winger started 19 times last term, scoring four tries to earn his team-mates' recognition. 

The 28-year-old told the Edinburgh website: “It was a really good year personally. I was happy and I knew I had it in me, but it was a bit weird because it’s how I envisioned my first year."

“Each year I kind of write goals down. And picking up an award was definitely the goal for the second year after watching [Luke] Crosbie pick up every award my first year, I wanted to do the same.

“I guess my teammates appreciate what I’m doing on the field. And I’m a huge team man. And I want to be that kind of person, like always a team person first, not out there for himself."

Wes Goosen during an Edinburgh pre-season session at Linlithgow RFC (Image: SNS)

Now Goosen - who signed a new contract with the club earlier this year- is targeting hitting new heights. 

He added: “I still think I can go to another level, which I want to build on this year.

“Personally, my goal is not to be happy with last year. Last year was good for me, but I keep saying it, I’ve still got so much more.

"I feel like I can influence the game more. I feel like I know the game pretty well. I can maybe score a few more tries to be honest.

But there is serious competition in Edinburgh's back three, with Scotland duo Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham also competing for wing berths,  plus Argentina's Emiliano Boffelli and another Scotland cap Harry Paterson vying for the number 15 shirt. 

But after Graham and Boffelli missed out on large parts of last season with groin and back injuries, respectively, Goosen is looking forward to having the experienced duo back soon. 

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He said: “To have Darcy Graham and Emiliano Boffelli back this season is huge. They are both world class players.

Darcy Graham is back fit and in pre-season training (Image: SNS)

“I played a little bit with Boff last year. He still wasn’t 100% and he was still carving up, but to have more threats on the field with Boff, Darcy and Duhan [van der Merwe] is amazing.

"It’s just going to create a lot of attacking threats, and we’ve got a lot of rugby brains on one field.”