MAGNUS Bradbury, the Edinburgh forward, has insisted that his team can still challenge for the PRO12 play-off places despite their disappointing start to the season.
Edinburgh have lost two of their first three games, and face a tough match at Munster on Saturday. But the 21-year-old is confident that his team can shrug off their indifferent form and start climbing the table, provided they regain the solidity in defence that was their cardinal virtue last year.
“I think it is realistic,” Bradbury said yesterday when asked about Edinburgh’s pre-season target of a top-four slot. “It’s only three games, and it’s a long season. Anything can happen. That’s still our target.”
Admittedly, it is far too early to draw hard and fast conclusions for better or worse after only three games, but the troubling thing for Edinburgh is not the mere fact that they have lost two of those games so much as the manner in which they lost them. In their opening match against Cardiff, in dreadful conditions, they had little to offer in attack. After performing better in their home win against Scarlets, they tried a more attacking style against Leinster, but while things went well at first, they ended up conceding five tries as a result of lapses in defence.
It looked like the emphasis on attack had come at the expense of organisation in defence, but Bradbury believes the squad can accomplish both aspects of the game adequately as long as they do not succumb to the lapses of concentration that were evident against Leinster.
“That was one of the things that came out of our [post-match] meeting,” he said. “That lapse in concentration from about 10 minutes till maybe the 35th or something when they got the upper hand. We did get our concentration back for the second half and had more of the ball and attacked more. The defence is our main thing - not so much the system but the belief that we can stop team scoring against us and keep them out for an extended period of time.
“We’ve always tried to work on our attack, and it has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of seasons. It’s just capitalising when we get to the last third and come away with points. It’s just getting used to it. We are creating chances, it’s just getting those killer blows and getting points.
“For the size of players we have and the calibre of player we have, we have all the necessary tools. The concentration at times lapses, and that’s what kills us.”
Munster is never the easiest place to visit when you are in search of a morale-boosting win, but Bradbury suggested the Edinburgh squad will travel in confident mood. “I think everyone is looking forward to it. Munster are a bit like us in a way; a big pack.
“We’re pretty confident. We know it’s going to be hard up front and whoever gets the upper hand will win the game, so we’re going to go for it.”
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