Packing down in the Scottish front row will be the Quins’ home-spun tight-head prop Javan Sebastian, who learned his rugby at the local Queen Elizabeth Grammar School and at Carmarthen Park.
Graduating through the Scarlets and Wales U16 and U18 regional teams, as well as the academy, he played 110 games over seven seasons for the Quins, including two games as recently as the 2021-22 season.
But while there was always a chance of him playing for Wales, it was his Scottish father who earned him the chance to play for the boys in blue. He won his first cap against Japan in 2021 is currently at his first World Cup, where he will win his seventh cap against the Romanians in Lille.
But it could all have been so very different for him after he initially turned away from professional rugby to work as a butcher and play for the Quins.
“I worked in the butcher’s for about two months. I couldn’t hack it any longer than that. It was dark, not a nice place,” recalled Sebastian.
“I thought my professional rugby career was pretty much over, so I took a year out to reflect and get back to normal life. It made me open my eyes to what I could potentially do.
“Being a butcher or doing any other normal job is quite tough. I’m not saying that being a rugby player isn’t tough, but the real world is scary.”
He went from the Scarlets to Glasgow Warriors, returned to west Wales and has now opted for a move to Edinburgh after the World Cup – the city in which his father was raised.
“Playing at Edinburgh next season, it’ll be good for him to develop alongside his international team-mates,” said Scotland scrum coach, the South African-born French international.
“It’ll be good to have him closer to home and to see him grow. In terms of the set-piece, I think he’s one of the best scrummaging tightheads out there.
“You can ask any front-row player, they’ll always back Javan to pack down in a scrum.”
