EDINBURGH RUGBY have, in the past, had something of a habit of following a great performance with a disappointing one.
Or, as head coach Richard Cockerill put it in the aftermath of his side’s impressive 29-19 win over Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield on Saturday, they have a habit of climbing a mountain and then falling off the cliff.
However, with a game against Southern Kings coming up this Saturday in the Pro14, there cannot be any complacency caused by their victory over Warriors.
And that, revealed Edinburgh back, Duhan van der Merwe, was hammered into him and his teammates in the immediate aftermath of their victory on Saturday, which kept the 1872 Cup alive following Glasgow’s victory in the first leg the previous week.
“Cockers said (straight) after the game, we need to get up for the next game,” said van der Merwe.
“If you think back to last year we lost to Kings away, Zebre away. Games like that cost us and we didn’t get to the quarter-finals or into the Champions Cup.
“We want to be back there. So we can’t go this weekend and play badly.”
Van der Merwe was hugely impressive against Warriors on Saturday, with a sublime 22-to-22 run, which saw him evade three tackles, setting up teammate Darcy Graham for his first try of the afternoon just one moment in a performance that would have been well worthy of the man-of-the-match award had Pierre Schoeman not pipped him to it.
Graham earned many of the plaudits due to his brace of tries and van der Merwe admitted that playing alongside the lightening-quick winger on Saturday, and this season as a whole, has been an absolute pleasure.
“He was outstanding,” said van der Merwe of Graham.
“He’s so fast so credit to him. It’s amazing he got two tries and I’m happy for him.
“He’s probably one of the hardest guys to defend against I’d say because he moves a lot faster than me.
“For such a small guy he’s so tough. You think you’ve beaten him and he’ll just come back. He’s got something about him and is an outstanding player. He’s developed a lot over the last year.”
There was, admits van der Merwe, a few celebratory drinks on Saturday evening following their derby win, but there is no time to relax.
Edinburgh are currently sitting pretty in their Pro14 conference, in second place just a point behind leaders Munster. The visit of bottom-placed Kings to Murrayfield on Saturday should, in theory, see Edinburgh notch another win, but van der Merwe is taking nothing for granted and is anticipating a stern test from the South African side.
“We can’t take them lightly or think they are easy or we’ll get beaten, and that will put us in a bad spot,” he said.
“We need to go out and be focused and play our best game again. They are obviously going to come over and speed the game up - space on the wings and a nice brand of rugby. Almost like Glasgow, they like chucking it about and they’ll come over and make it hard for us.”
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