Edinburgh bound Scotland qualified scrum-half signs off from New Zealand with NPC final glory

The Scotland qualified nine started the showpiece fixture against Northland at the One NZ Stadium in Christchurch, playing 64 minutes before being replaced by Tyson Belworthy. Canterbury ran out 43-24 winners with hooker George Bell and winger Isaac Hutchinson both scoring braces from the bench in the second half.

Dominic Gardiner and Brodie McAlister had scored the earlier tries for the defending champions who have now made it three titles in a row and 19 overall. They topped the league table with eight wins and two losses and beat Waikato in the quarter-finals and Taranaki in the semis.

When Louie Chapman is due to arrive in Edinburgh

Edinburgh announced the signing of 26-year-old Chapman back in April shortly after confirming the capture of fellow NPC stand out Riley Higgins from Wellington. The half-back has made a handful of appearances for Super Rugby franchise the Crusaders and qualifies for Scotland on ancestry grounds.

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt confirmed the exact date when the scrum half will arrive at the Hive after their 31-10 URC win over the Lions at the weekend. He said: “Louie Chapman will be arriving in Edinburgh on November 6.

“He's playing in the NPC final on Monday. If he comes through unscathed, he should be in the mix for the first game of December. There's going to be interesting competition there [at scrum-half].

“Hector [Patterson] has been really good and has shown growth in every game that he's played. He was disappointed in his performance last weekend [against Toulon in the Challenge Cup]. He came back really strongly tonight and got man of the match. The other nines are going to have to work hard to displace him. That's what we want in the club.”

On Riley Higgins, who missed the entire NPC season with injury, Everitt said: “Riley's arrived. He's in his final stages of rehab with a shoulder surgery that he had earlier in the year.

“Hopefully he'll be in an Edinburgh jersey by early December. But it's great to have him in the building. He can come to terms with what we're trying to do, spend some time with the boys next week. He did spend a couple of weeks here earlier in the season. so we expect him to hit the ground running.”