EDINBURGH full-back Blair Kinghorn is confident that his team can resume league duties in the same high-tempo style with which they left off three weeks ago.
Duncan Hodge’s team shocked Ulster in their last PRO12 outing at the start of the month, winning 28-17. Some might have thought it preferable to keep on playing rather than take a break during the first two Autumn Tests, but Kinghorn thinks that the rest has been beneficial - and hopes he and his team-mates can prove as much when they take on Dragons in Newport this afternoon.
“Everyone’s really looking forward to getting back out there and keeping this run of good form going,” he said. “Everyone needed a break to get their bodies right. We’re really excited to get back going, so hopefully we’ll get straight back to where we were when we left off.”
That inspiring win over Ulster, it should be said, followed an equally dispiriting defeat at home to Zebre, so Edinburgh are clearly lacking consistency. But they are enjoying the more creative style adopted by Hodge since he became acting head coach, in particular the greater responsibility they have been given for deciding the direction of play.
“We’re playing with a high tempo at the moment and it’s really good,” Kinghorn added. “Everyone knows what we’re wanting to do and we’re all working towards the same thing. You can see that when we get it right, we do very well.
“Coming off the back of a good result like we had against Ulster, we know we have to back it up and keep the run of games going. Everyone’s really focussed on going down there and getting a good win.
“It will be a tough game. We’re going to Wales twice in a row” - they visit Ospreys next Friday - “ and we’ll come with our game plan looking to do a job. It’s a tough place to go, but if we play the way we can, we’ll do well.”
Edinburgh (v Dragons at Rodney Parade, today, 3.30pm): B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, C Dean, P Burleigh, M Allen; J Tovey, S Kennedy; J Cosgrove, N Cochrane, M McCallum, F McKenzie, B Toolis, M Bradbury, J Ritchie, N Manu. Substitutes: S McInally, K Whyte, F Arregui, L Carmichael, V Mata, S Hidalgo-Clyne, D Weir, ,G Bryce.
Dragons: C Meyer; P Howard, S Beard, J Dixon, A Hewitt; A O’Brien, T Knoyle; S Hobbs, T Rhys Thomas, B Harris, N Crosswell, R Landman, L Evans, OI Griffiths, E Jackson. Substitutes: R Buckley, P Price, L Fairbrother, M Screech, N Cudd, S Pretorius, G Rhys Jones, T Morgan.
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