EDINBURGH’S head coach Richard Cockerill maintained his pre-match position that winning the 1872 Challenge Cup was no more than a bonus, but he was delighted that his team emerged with the bragging rights after this season’s series of derbies was completed with a 24-19 victory.
Their place in the PRO14 play-offs and next season’s European Champions Cup had been secured when Munster drew with play-off rivals Ulster earlier in the day, but there was no lack of intensity in their performance against Glasgow Warriors.
“I’m not sure it’s the trophy they’re playing for, it’s their own pride,” he asserted after they set up a quarter-final visit to Munster next weekend.
“There were a few tetchy moments before the game around what Ulster and Munster were doing, but every time we play I want us to try to win. Obviously, there’s a bit of added spice around Glasgow, but it’s big for Edinburgh tonight. We talked ourselves up and we produced the goods.
“The boys have beaten a very good team and they’ve got fantastic
players, but so are we. We’re a good club and we’ve got lots of good players too and it’s nice to see an Edinburgh crowd cheering at the end and supporting their team.
“Glasgow are a better team than us and they’re genuinely contenders to win the thing, but when we get it right we can compete at this level.”
Warriors head coach Dave Rennie had said in recent weeks that he wanted to ensure that his men entered the play-offs with a winning momentum and he admitted that they now have work to do ahead of a semi-final against the reigning champ-ion Scarlets or South Africa’s Cheetahs.
“The ideal scenario is that you’re winning and you take a lot of confidence from that. Our challenge now is to know we’ve got three weeks where we can tidy a few things up. We get to sit back and watch a quarter-final next week, get some clarity around what we need to do,” he said.
“We need to make some shifts in our game, not structurally, but more about our individual ability to carry and go forward.”
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