{"id":32369,"date":"2026-07-18T02:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T02:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/castres-call-for-hamish-watson-after-edinburgh-exit\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T02:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T02:58:21","slug":"castres-call-for-hamish-watson-after-edinburgh-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/castres-call-for-hamish-watson-after-edinburgh-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Castres call for Hamish Watson after Edinburgh exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Scotland flanker Hamish Watson has signed for Castres after leaving Edinburgh.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The French Top 14 club moved to recruit the 34-year-old after Dalton Papali&#8217;i was ruled out long-term after undergoing surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Watson, who ended last season on loan to Leicester Tigers, revealed he had to make his mind up quickly after being contacted by Castres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The opportunity to perform in French rugby is a fantastic opportunity for me,&#8221; he told the club website after agreeing a one-year contract. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Given Dalton Papali&#8217;i&#8217;s injury, Castres Olympique contacted me in recent days and I had to make a very quick decision. I did so with enthusiasm. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I know that several great Scottish players have played for Castres and I am joining this club in great shape with the firm intention of helping them perform at the highest level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Manchester-born Watson, who has 59 Scotland caps, joined Edinburgh in 2011 and went on to make nearly 160 appearances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Castres, who finished 10th in the Top 14 last season, say they are welcoming a player known for his work rate and ability to win the ball in rucks &#8211; and someone &#8220;who has competed at the highest level of international rugby for over a decade&#8221;. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/clyq6n0wr55o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scotland flanker Hamish Watson has signed for Castres after leaving Edinburgh. The French Top 14 club moved to recruit the 34-year-old after Dalton Papali&#8217;i was ruled out long-term after undergoing surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Watson, who ended last season on loan to Leicester Tigers, revealed he had to make his mind up quickly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32371,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32369\/revisions\/32371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}