Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat believes his new assistant Tom Smith will be the man to get his young pack roaring into the new season.

The 37-year-old – who has 61 Scotland caps and appeared in six consecutive Test’s for the British and Irish Lions in 1997 and 2001 – has called time on his playing career with Northampton Saints to make the move into coaching.

And Moffat is convinced Smith’s credentials on the pitch can be transferred into his role as assistant coach, as well as joint forwards coach, at Edinburgh.

"He is a real thinker about rugby – and ambitious as well, which is good," said Moffat.

"On top of that I've always known Tom will voice his opinion which is what we want as well as providing specialist expertise at prop where we have up-and-comings such as Kyle Traynor, Ryan Grant, Geoff Cross and David Young as well as more mature types like Allan Jacobsen.

"Here Tom will share scrum coach duties with Massimo Cuttitta who'll continue to work with us, and given both men aren't the egotistical type that will produce benefits all round."