Three years on from his short-lived flirtation as Edinburgh captain, Magnus Bradbury has re-calibrated his career and a new two-year deal means he’ll be staying in the capital for his peak years.
The now 24-year-old was pegged as Richard Cockerill’s first Edinburgh captain when he arrived at the club at just 21, but he lost that job and was in the head coach’s doghouse and earned a suspension after he suffered an injury while on a night out in the city.
Lesson long learned, Bradbury is now a Scotland regular, a physical force for both club and country and re-assuming the leadership role amongst his team-mates, and he’s signed on again to the long stretch.
“It was all my own fault and it was bad time for me, but it’s been a learning curve,” said the former Oban Academy boy. “I wouldn’t say I’m thankful for it – I’d still rather it hadn’t happened – but the lessons I’ve learned from that have helped me push on, and myself and Cockers have a much better understanding of one another now.
“Being excluded from the Edinburgh and Scotland teams for a bit pushed me on and made me want more, and I’ve turned that situation around and I’m back on a good footing going forward.”
That relationship is still built on honesty from both parties, he added.
“He’s a pretty honest guy so he’ll tell you straight up what he wants you to do,” continued Bradbury. “For example with the first Glasgow game, I didn’t play my best and he said why, gave me the points straight up, and I was on the bench the following week.
“For me, that’s the best thing from a coach. There’s no beating around the bush, they just tell you how they want you to improve and how they want you to play.”
And seizing his chances when they come have become Bradbury’s speciality, like scoring Scotland’s first try from No 8 for nine years at Twickenham in March and then, after injury meant he was edged out of the Rugby World Cup squad, playing three games out of four when he came due to injury.
“It was good to get that starting jersey for the last couple of games at the World Cup but in Scotland, there are so many good players who play in that position,” he said. “There is never a guarantee but I hope I put a good case forward on the back of that World Cup.”
He did have some interest from elsewhere, but little interest himself in doing anything other than staying with Edinburgh.
“I feel this is at the right time on the back of a positive period for time for me, and I felt it was the best time for me to settle my contract and be locked down for the next two years,” he said.
“It is a great place to be, the best place the club has been in,” he said. “We have so much strength in depth in the back row mow that we can rotate when needs be. From a team’s point of view it is a positive place to be.
“Personally, with this period going forward with this team we have right now and the coaching staff we have got, it is the right place for me to be. The results I feel we can produce in the next couple of seasons I think it is an exciting place.”
This weekend Edinburgh are seeking to win back control of their European Challenge Cup pool from Bordeaux-Begles in France, the teams having drawn at Murrayfield and each won their other three matches.
“It is a tough place to go, playing over in Montpelier last year was a different level,” recalled Bradbury. “French teams tend to be a different animal at home. They’re going to be a big physical team but we’ll expect more of that now that they’re playing at home in front of what will be a noisy crowd.”
Bradbury is just the latest of Cockerill’s successes in getting his better young players to stay at Edinburgh.
“We’ve been talking to Maggie and his agent for a long time, trying to make sure we get the right deal for everybody and keep our best players as much as we can,” said the head coach.
“He’s big and aggressive, he’s a good ball-carrier, he carries hard, and he’s good at getting over the gainline. And when you run into him, you stay tackled.
“I think he’s still leadership material. Look, the more confident you get in playing the game and understanding your role within the game, I think that leads naturally to being able to lead.
“As long as he stays off the nights out, he’s got more chance of leading the team, hasn’t he? We know the history on that.”
