{"id":693221,"date":"2026-01-13T13:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T13:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T13:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T13:29:26","slug":"edinburgh-turn-to-ranfurly-shield-winner-amid-centre-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693221\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh turn to Ranfurly Shield winner amid centre crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>united-rugby-championship<\/p>\n<p>    New Edinburgh signing, Kienan Higgins. Photo: Edinburgh Rugby <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/edinburgh-turn-to-ranfurly-shield-winner-amid-centre-crisis\/    <\/p>\n<p>Scottish-qualified, New Zealand-born centre <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/kienan-higgins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kienan Higgins<\/a> has joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/edinburgh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edinburgh<\/a> on a short-term contract, with immediate effect, to help bolster their midfield options.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Currie suffered a hamstring injury in their Champions Cup victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/gloucester\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gloucester<\/a> on Friday, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/mosese-tuipulotu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mosese Tuipulotu<\/a> (knee) and academy prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/findlay-thomson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Findlay Thomson<\/a> (hand) are also currently sidelined, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/charlie-mccaig\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charlie McCaig<\/a>, who suffered a season-ending knee injury soon after arriving from Exeter, leaving the capital club with only two fit centres \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/james-lang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Lang<\/a> and Piers O\u2019Conor.<\/p>\n<p>Higgins has had five seasons in the National Provincial Championship with Hawke\u2019s Bay Magpies, winning the Ranfurly Shield, and has signed with New <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">England<\/a> Free Jacks for the 2026 MLR season, which begins at the end of March.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old is the older brother of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/hurricanes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hurricanes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All Blacks<\/a> XV standout Riley Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on his move to the Scottish capital, Higgins said: \u201cI am really excited to be joining Edinburgh Rugby. Having Scottish heritage, this is a proud moment for me and my family, and I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity to test myself in a new environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Northern Hemisphere game offers a different set of challenges, and I\u2019ve always wanted to try my hand at the style of rugby played in the URC and Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal is to hit the ground running, learn as much as I can from the quality players here, and add real value to the squad during my time in the city. I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"mens united-rugby-championship New Edinburgh signing, Kienan Higgins. Photo: Edinburgh Rugby https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/edinburgh-turn-to-ranfurly-shield-winner-amid-centre-crisis\/ Scottish-qualified, New Zealand-born centre Kienan Higgins has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-693221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115888033850500557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}