This article first appeared on The Offside Line on 14th October 2026
AFTER six rounds of the Arnold Clark Premiership, few players have made their mark on the young season like Gus Godwin of Watsonians, with the outside centre having crossed for five tries and been named in two of The Offside Line’s weekly Premiership Dream Teams.
And the young Australian, who has seemingly appeared from nowhere, is loving life in the capital, on and off the pitch.
“The club’s been really welcoming,” he beams. “Everyone is so friendly, so it’s been a seamless transition. I thought moving cities and even countries would be a bit daunting, but they’ve made it quite easy.
“I’ve also probably never enjoyed rugby as much as I am right now. And it’s been a lot of fun off the field with the lads too.”
Primarily a centre, although he has also played on the wing and at full-back in the past, the 23-year-old is a product of the prestigious Easts Rugby Club in Brisbane, Queensland, and hails from a rugby playing family.
“My dad played and my pop played. My older brother had to give it up because of his shoulder, but my two little brothers still play, one at Easts Colts and one going into his last year playing 1st XV at school.”
Starting at the age of five at Easts, Godwin played through all the age-grades at the club, eventually playing for the first-grade side in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
The only time he has not played for Easts, he was playing for his school, Villanova College, which is just over a mile from the club. It was there that he earned a call-up to the Australian Schoolboys, and although the Covid pandemic meant he never actually played, he has the jersey – “number 23, it would have been better without the number!” – to tell the tale.
Godwin has been a loyal club man through his rugby days, so what brought him all the way to Edinburgh?
“I wasn’t really enjoying my rugby at the start of the year, in March, April time. I just lost my passion for it and felt like I was going through the motions, so I was keen for a change,” he explains.
“I was about to buy an apartment in Brisbane, but I thought: ‘Screw it, I’d rather take a chance before I get locked down there’.
“My best mate was living in Europe for six months at the start of the year, so I just said” ‘I’m going to come over’. And we toured Europe for two months and had so much fun.”
Rugby, however, was still on his mind, and after sending off a few enquiries to clubs in England, he decided to turn to a family connection for their help.
“My old man taught with Matt Taylor, who used to be the Scotland defence coach and was with the Wallabies for a bit,” Godwin recalls. “I emailed Matt and he said: ‘Yep, I know Davey Wilson at Watsonians and think that would be good’. So that was the contact made and Matt passed my stuff onto Davey.
“I spoke with Davey when I was still in Brisbane and after that chat, I said I’d come, and that was it.”
Fresh off a two-month tour of Europe, Godwin touched down in Myreside in early July, hit the ground running with his new team-mates, and knew almost immediately that it was the right decision for him as a player and as a person.
“When you’re in the same place for a long time, people just build an opinion on you and it never changes, so I think that it was good for my rugby, and me, to just step into a new environment.”
At 23, Godwin did not expect to become one of the more experienced players in his new backline, but that is the situation he found himself in at Watsonians.
There is a wealth of young talent surrounding the Aussie with the likes of Angus Robson, Bruce Weatherhead and Max Garry all still under 20, and he says the youth and ambition of the Watsonians backline has been a breath of fresh air.
“We’re so young and while we have our objectives and targets on where we want to get to on a field, we try to play eyes up rugby, too. I enjoy it and I think our coaches know that we are good at that off-the-cuff stuff.
“Then, on the other side of the ball, our defence has been solid, apart from that Melrose game that was the weirdest game I’ve ever been a part of [Watsonians lost 53-51 that day]. Against Currie, Heriot’s last week and GHA, we showed that when we need to defend, we just knuckle down.”
Godwin is also full of praise for the two inside-centres he has played with this season. “Harry Clark has been making me look alright and Ronan Kerr does the same thing,” he says. “When they’re playing at 12, defending is very easy. We all complement each other quite a lot.”
As well as enjoying his time on the field, Godwin has been settling into life away from the club thanks to his team-mate and flatmate, Preston Brydon, a young half-back from New Zealand who has been recovering from a knee injury.
“Living with Preston has been unreal. It’s good fun and there’s lots of good energy. He’s a little live-wire!” says the qualified joiner, who has been helping out as a coach at Edinburgh Academy since landing in the capital.
It is evident from hearing Godwin talk that he values the ability to play carefree, no pressure rugby. He describes his playing style as “eyes up” and “instinctual”, commenting that: “When I’m calm and in the moment, things work a bit easier for me”.
But it has not always been that way.
“At school, there was so much pressure around rugby with big videos coming out every week, thatI felt like I couldn’t get into the game, my head was just so full.
“I think when you’re enjoying your rugby, it’s just so much better. Dad and mum always taught us that if you’re having fun, things are going to be better.
“Dad will text me before a game and all he’ll say is ‘have fun’. It doesn’t matter what I’m playing for, it is always ‘have fun’.”
And based on his performances this season, Godwin is having fun, plenty of it. But after the welfare weekend – “the week off last week, that was nice, we needed that” – Watsonians face a tricky run of games, starting this weekend against Edinburgh Accies at Myreside.
“Playing a team like Accies from across the city and needing every win they can get, that is always a dangerous type of team to come up against. We can’t be lulled into thinking this game will be easy. They will beat us if we’re not on it.
“The goal for the next three weeks is to come away with 15 points and then finish this first round of games with seven wins.”
If they achieve that goal, perhaps Godwin and his Watsonians teammates might be starting to think of greater ambitions, although he insists they are not there yet. It is just one week at a time.
And for the man himself, he is not contemplating beyond this season, for now.
“I came over here just wanting to play rugby for a year in a different environment. That’s still the goal. Maybe if I keep playing well, potentially something could happen. But at the same time, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t really worry me.”
But before he can think about the future, he must contend with his first Scottish winter, and his attire on arrival to training is a sign the cold is starting to have an impact.
“It’s actually been quite nice so far, we only had that little bit of rain against Currie. I was honestly expecting to come and play in mud all season. But today is the first day that I’ve had to wear the mitts on the bike cycling here.”
A far cry from the sunshine in Brisbane but for this Queenslander, the new start in Edinburgh has been just what he needed, and through the early stages of the season, East Rugby Club’s loss has been Watsonians gain, all thanks to a “stab-in-the-dark” email to a former Scotland defence coach, and one big leap of faith from one laid-back Aussie.
