Edinburgh hooker Mike Willemse has insisted that there is no danger of panic taking grip despite his team having suffered a sixth defeat on the bounce against Connacht at home on Sunday night. It was their opponents’ first win in the PRO14 in 11 months, and leaves the capital side languishing just one point ahead of Benetton at the foot of Conference B.  

We may only be three games into the campaign, but it is clear from social media that anxiety is already growing amongst fans that a lack of depth and leadership – especially when the internationalists are away – means that the progress of the previous three seasons under head coach Richard Cockerill is in danger of evaporating during the next few months. 

The Covid pandemic means that Cockerill’s recruitment in key positions has been limited, and with an extended seven-week Autumn Test schedule this year, the squad is going to be stretched like never before.  

As the coach highlighted after the game on Sunday, ‘there is no magic potion’ or legion of reinforcements on the way to help dig the side out of this hole they find themselves in – the solution to Edinburgh’s current predicament is going to have to be found from within. Newly signed South African second-row Andries Ferreira will come into the selection mix for next weekend’s trip to the Scarlets, and Mark Bennett might also return after being ‘rested’ at the weekend. 

“We can’t look at the past six games now, we just have to focus on the next one,” said Willemse. “We’ve lost a lot of guys to the national side, but as a group we really have a lot of guys who work hard and we have a lot of trust in each other, so we just have to look forward and carry on doing what we did last season and hopefully it comes right. 

“We are trying to build as games go, so we’ll have to take the positives out of this one and try to build from that.” 

The fact that Edinburgh managed to score four tries – at home – on Sunday and still came up short is a cause of deep frustration, but Willemse argues that it should also be a source of encouragement because it indicates that if his side can tighten up their defence then they should be able to turn the corner. 

“It’s a tough one,” mused Willemse. “We did a lot of good things out there but we were obviously a little bit too easy to score against. They were really good around the fringes and put us under pressure in our 22, and it cost us. 

“We’ll just keep chipping away and I am in no doubt that come next week we will be up for it. Looking at this game, I don’t think our attitude was terrible at all. It was a couple of soft tries we need to be better with so we’ll address that going forward.” 

The silver-lining for Edinburgh is that having 17 guys unavailable due to either international commitments or injury means that youngsters such as Jack Blain and Connor Boyle have been given exposure that they would normally get at this stage in their development. 

Blain is principally a winger who was pressed into action at full-back for his second competitive appearance for the club on Sunday night. The 20-year-old was dangerous with ball in hand but struggled to cope with Connacht’s excellent short kicking game. Boyle, meanwhile, came off the bench for his debut with 15 minutes to go. 

“Like I said, we’ve lost a lot of guys to the national side but it is not something we dwelled on,” said Willemse. “We’ve just carried on and tried to enjoy ourselves as much as possible, and just focus on the next game. There is a lot of guys coming through the ranks now and getting opportunities, so we’re focussed on that – we want to make guys excited about getting the chance to come into the set-up and show off their talent. 

Willemse scored two of his team’s four tries against Connacht, both from line-out drives, the other two by Nic Groom and Andrew Davidson, were also from close-range forward-play, which gives an indication of where Edinburgh’s focus will be as they look to turn their fortunes around.  

“It is testament to how hard our forward pack works during the week,” said the hooker. “I just put the ball down, it was the guys in front of me who did the leg work. If we can just match our attacking prowess with some better defence then I’m sure we’ll start to come out on top. That is something we are going to have to look at going forward.”