WHAT better time than four days before Scotland’s RBS Six Nations Championship squad is announced for the Edinburgh players who have been struggling all season to put in their best away performance of the campaign?
That was certainly the view of acting head coach Duncan Hodge who believes that the way some of his leading contenders played against Harlequins will have given Vern Cotter, the Scotland head coach, some tricky problems as he picks his squad.
“Vern has a tough choice, Glasgow are going well as well,” Hodge said. “In some positions he has a lot of choice, a lot of depth. It is great news for him.”
Nobody knows that better than Hamish Watson, whose man-of-the-match game could not have come at a better time as he hopes to hold on to his Scotland place. Hodge said: “The thing about Hamish is that you put him on a pitch and pretty much know what you are going to get. That big thing, consistency, he has definitely been delivering, it is great to see.”.
What is amazing is that this was only Edinburgh’s third away win of the season with the others coming against Timisoara and Zebre, who are hardly in the same league as Harlequins.
Now Edinburgh have shown they can do it, the challenge is to bring this form to the Guinness PRO12.
“You would be surprised at how important winning away at Zebre two weeks ago was,” Hodge said. “It was the same as at the start of the season. “When we get a bit of confidence, the players start to believe. What we have to back that up with is just hard work. We will get refocused for next week.
“The important thing was to keep the group all in our hands. If we had lost then we would have been relying on other people, picking up bonus points, points difference and all that. There was a big pressure to win.
“I’m absolutely delighted. The boys did exactly what we had talked about doing, and got the tries when they got the chances. They played some great rugby out there.
“The boys are actually quite disappointed. In the huddle they were talking about the tries they conceded at the end, but that should not take away from the overall performance. The defence was good and they took their chances.”
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