NEW Edinburgh signing Jaco van der Walt is emerging as one of the key players as the club aim to follow reaching the quarter finals of the European Challenge Cup by becoming the first team to beat Glasgow Warriors this season when the Scottish derby takes place eight days later.
Head coach Richard Cockerill admits the way things have gone, he has had no option but to throw the fly half he signed from South Africa in at the deep end with both Duncan Weir and Jason Tovey, who stared the season fighting for the position, both injured.
“He [van der Walt] has played Super Rugby at a high level,” Cockerill pointed out.
“He has played at the Lions, who play a very good brand of rugby. He has a very good understanding of the game.
“We need to develop a game where we are attacking the game line more and more. We want to be more of a threat ball in hand.
“We have seen that in the last six to eight weeks and Jaco [van der Walt] will help.
“Jaco brings that little bit of energy at the gain line, physically he is very good – a player who will give spark to the team. We are already starting to see that straight off the bat. Hopefully the more he plays the more comfortable he feels and the better he will become.”
The strange thing is, Cockerill admitted, that van der Walt’s importance to the side means he may not play the whole game this weekend when they face Krasny Yar, the Russian European Challenge Cup qualifiers, in Edinburgh.
They have already beaten them 73-14 in Moscow and know another five point haul in this game would put them on 20 points in their group –
the magic number that has always guaranteed a quarter final spot.
It is, Cockerill admitted a strange feeling for him to be able to approach the second half of a European tournament in such a relaxed frame
of mind.
“It’s the first time in my experience as a coach where you can go into two European games and actually look after your squad. Normally you’d be eyeballs-out, wouldn’t you, because they’re all really important games,” he said.
“It’s a strange one that we have the luxury of looking after our squad and were able to bring our internationals out to South Africa to get as many league points as we could, knowing that we could rest guys in this European window.
“That’s a little bit new. We’ll look after our internationals knowing that we have two very big league games coming up, then the Kings, then two [more] European games.
“Then they all disappear again for the Six Nations.
“It’s a good way to be able to manage them. It’s difficult for other sides – Glasgow had a tough game at the weekend – you have to pick your best team. They have two weeks of a very physical, attritional rugby, whereas we don’t.”
Which leaves Cockerill with a dilemma over his fly half. While van der Walt could do with game time as he adjusts to his new club and European conditions, the coach cannot afford for him to get hurt.
“He probably needs the time on the pitch, it is just the case of getting injured, We will be mindful that we need to look after Jaco [van der Walt].
“[Blair] Kinghorn has also been very important to us. We have to look after our squad.
“We need to concentrate on getting Friday done and then start concentrating on the Glasgow games. If you lose focus you end up in a bite of bother.
“Jaco’s contract became a bit messy at the Lions for whatever reason. We acted very quickly around that. We’ve got contacts all round the world. I touched base with Jaco and it happened quite quickly.
“We’ve some injuries at 10 and that [signing van der Walt] has eased that for us.”
Apart from that, Cockerill has the luxury of being able to rotate his squad without feeling it is going to hurt his side’s chances.
“Darcy Graham’s try-scoring debut has added to his options on the wing, while Viliame Mata has come back from a brief trip home to Fiji in peak form.
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