NATHAN HINES has confirmed that he is the latest player to leave Scottish rugby, heading for a two-year deal in France.

The decision, coming just a few days after regaining his starting place in the Scotland side, represents yet another blow to the Fortress Scotland policy that Matt Williams, the Scotland coach, has championed.

It is clear that Hines, who follows Brendan Laney in leaving the Edinburgh team, is not alone in planning to play his rugby next season outside Scotland, even though the coach has made it clear that the move could put his place in the Scotland side in jeopardy.

Apart from the damage to one of Williams’s core policies, the real worry is that some of the players, which include the likes of Gordon Bulloch, the Scotland captain, Sean Lamont, the wing, and Jon Petrie, the back row, may be pressured by their new clubs to end their Scotland careers.

The Celtic League will break next season during the international windows but the championships in both England and France will keep going and clubs in both countries are on the look out for quality players who will not be affected by national demands.

Part of the disenchantment among the leading Scottish players harks back to this time last year when new contracts were introduced, cutting the guaranteed pay and replacing it with performance-related bonuses. The players, who had been understandably reluctant to take the gamble, accepted the deal only after being promised that the professional teams would be given every possible assistance in their bids to reach the knockout stage of the Heineken Cup and leading positions in the Celtic League.

Instead, the clubs found that players were taken away from the teams for international training camps and even when they were available, had often been left drained and exhausted by the demands of those sessions.

In Hines’s case, however, it is understood that there are also personal reasons behind the move to Perpignan in the Catalan area of southwest France. He impressed the club with his displays against them in the Heineken Cup, reckoning that he will add mobility and ball-playing skills to an already formidable pack.

Todd Blackadder, the Edinburgh captain and forwards coach, led the tributes to Hines. “I will miss him firstly as a mate, I think we all will,” he said. “He has a great attitude and is a wonderful personality. He possesses skills which we don’t have in abundance in Scotland. We’ll miss both him and Leann [Hines’s wife] and wish them all the best for their new life in France.”

Hines, who was born in Australia, came to Scotland in 1998 on a short contract to play BT Premiership rugby with Gala but was quickly picked up by the Edinburgh Reivers and then got his break into the Scotland side on the 2000 summer tour of New Zealand, playing against Hawkes Bay less than a day after landing and then winning his debut cap as a replacement in the second international.

Hines got his first Six Nations start two years ago against England and by the 2003 World Cup had displaced Scott Murray from the team as Jim Telfer, the then forwards coach, opted for his more abrasive approach. It is an attitude that has got him into trouble, though, since he became the first Scotland player to be sent off in an international when he was shown the red card against the United States when he reacted to an attack.

Hines said: “I’m sad to leave because I have been here in Scotland for seven years — which is six-and-a-half years longer than I was intending to stay. The reason for that? I like the country and I like the people.

“I have had a really good time since I’ve been here and I’ve enjoyed the opportunities that have come my way. My move to Perpignan is another one of those golden opportunities that I cannot pass up. I also want to thank the Edinburgh supporters and the people of Scotland for treating me as if I was brought up here because that’s made a big difference to me and Leann.”