EDINBURGH head coach Richard Cockerill was able to react with some good-humoured resignation after his team put in one of their most disappointing performances of the season when it mattered most - although his light-hearted mood turned sombre as he assessed a potentially serious injury to replacement back Mark Bennett.
If Edinburgh had got two points from this game by any method - a narrow loss and four tries or, less plausibly, by drawing - they would have been through to a play-off against Ospreys for the PRO14’s last place in next season’s Champions Cup. Given they reached the last eight of European rugby’s premier competition this season, that would have seemed to be a reasonable incentive. But, for whatever reason, they simply did not get up for this game, leaving their coach to offer a resigned shrug.
“There are some points in life where you just have to smile, don’t you?” Cockerill said. “Look, they played very well, they’re a good team, and we looked nowhere near like we were going to be in the game, so hats off to the Glasgow team. They played bloody well.
“We’re a side that’s learning to play big games week in, week out. We’re not a good enough side yet, clearly. I think the attrition of the season has maybe taken its toll.”
Cockerill was correct to suggest that the damage to his team’s play-off hopes had been done in previous games - a home defeat by Cardiff from 17-0 up having been a particularly painful and costly result - and a mood of something close to resignation had been evident in the Edinburgh camp in the build-up to the game.
When it came to the injury to Bennett, however, the coach was unwilling to shrug it off, insisting that it had been wholly avoidable.
The centre, who actually came on as a first-half replacement for full-back Darcy Rae, injured a knee after appearing to have been taken out at the side of a ruck.
“He’s had two reconstructions, one on each knee, and you don’t want a bloke injured when it’s not necessary,” the coach said.
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