EDINBURGH should set their sights on the top four of the PRO12 next season, according to Steve Scott, no matter how lowly a position they find themselves in at the end of this campaign.
Defeat by Munster last Friday has left Edinburgh with only an outside chance of the sixth-place finish they need to qualify for the Champions Cup. They must not only beat Cardiff on Saturday with a bonus point, but also need Munster to lose to Scarlets and Ospreys to fail to beat Ulster.
Lose to the Blues and they will finish ninth, a position lower than they managed in the last two seasons. In that context, it may seem strange for Scott to set his sights on higher things, but the assistant coach believes that criteria other than final league positions show his team are making progress.
“Hopefully we can sneak over that line at the weekend and get what we want to achieve this year,” Scott said yesterday. “But next year I think we need to be serious about being not in the top six but pushing for that top four.
“I know it sounds silly for saying it, but there’s been gradual progress as this team has built over the last three years. Next year is a big year for us and we need to actually be doing something.
“Look at the points. Points is a big thing. We’ve finished in the same position the last two years, probably with 32 points or something. Now we could finish in that position with 58 points. That’s a big difference.”
In fact, over the past four years Edinburgh have finished 11th, 10th, 8th and 8th. Their points tally has risen from 32 to 36 to 38 to 48, and now, with a game to go, they are on 53.
And yet, for all that steady improvement, there is a sense of frustration about the camp; a belief that they were not that far away this season from achieving higher things. “We can look back at games that we should have won, but we didn’t,” Scott added. “But I’m sure other sides will look back and think the same.
“The boys realise that this weekend coming we have a lifeline. It’s the last game of the season and it can’t just be a game like in the past when we were sitting down in eighth or ninth and the game meant nothing. This one has a bit of an edge to it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here