EDINBURGH may have only got four players back from Scotland as opposed to Glasgow’s nine for this weekend’s games, but at this stage of the season Richard Cockerill is grateful for all the help he can get.
The pressure is on the head coach’s team as they take on Scarlets in a crunch PRO14 Conference B match tomorrow afternoon, and, while he would have liked more key men released by the national squad, he knows that those he has received could play a crucial role in a contest which will itself have a big influence on Edinburgh’s hopes of finishing in the top-three, Champions Cup places.
“We need to win,” Cockerill said. “We need to win the next two weekends (Benetton are next up) to put us in a position to catch the teams above us. Then we’ve got Connacht, Cardiff and then the day after the final we play in the last round, against Dragons.
“We’re running out of games to catch up. So from now on in, we need as many points as possible.”
Three of the returning quartet are in Cockerill’s starting line-up for the clash with the third-placed Welsh side, who are 11 points clear of Edinburgh but have played two games more. Darcy Graham returns on the wing, Jaco van der Walt is at stand-off, and perhaps most importantly Grant Gilchrist is at lock, a position that has troubled Edinburgh all season because of multiple injuries. Hooker David Cherry, meanwhile, begins the game on the bench.
“I’m happy to have whatever is available,” Cockerill said yesterday after naming his team. “It’s good to have Gilchrist back, because second row is a position we’re light on at the moment. And it’s good to get Darcy back, because he’s a world-class winger and a threat and he needs a bit of game time. I could have done with a tighthead but it wasn’t to be.”
Edinburgh’s two first-choice tightheads, Simon Berghan and Willem Nel, are among the group of six kept back by Scotland along with their fellow-forwards Rory Sutherland, Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson plus winger Duhan van der Merwe. Any team would miss that amount of firepower, but Cockerill is confident his team can acquit themselves well provided they learn the lessons of last week’s 10-22 defeat by Munster.
“A little bit more composure at crucial times,” would have made the difference in that game, the former England hooker continued. “Physically we need to be a bit better. At key moments against Munster we got bullied a little bit around the set piece and in our goal-line defence. We need to be tougher there.
“But Munster are a good side, and reviewing the game it was tiny margins. It wasn’t a big difference on the scoreboard, but in key moments they executed and we either didn’t execute or were outmuscled a little bit and we need to put that right.”
The weather forecast is good, seemingly for the first time in some months, and Cockerill believes that both sides will welcome the opportunity to play some running rugby. That contradicts a suggestion which the Edinburgh coach says he read about his team’s style of play from his Scarlets counterpart Glenn Delaney.
“I did read with amusement yesterday that Mr Delaney was saying that we were a set-piece and kick-chase team. When I looked at the stats they kicked the ball 27 times on average per game, the second highest in the comp. We kicked the ball 22 times per game - we’re the lowest in the comp. So he can do one!
“The weather’s good and we’re happy to have it sunny and in daylight. It feels like we’ve been playing in winter the whole time. There have not been many good days, home or away, for as long as I can remember. So it’ll be good to have not much wind, no rain and a decent surface at Murrayfield. I think it suits all teams.
“We trained this morning, the sun’s out, it’s a nice winter’s morning and it makes everybody a bit happier. Even Scots can smile in the sunshine.”
Teams
Edinburgh (v Scarlets at BT Murrayfield, today[Sat] noon): D Hoyland; D Graham, J Johnstone, G Taylor, E Sau; J van der Walt, N Groom (captain); P Schoeman, M Willemse, L Atalifo, M Bradbury, G Gilchrist, N Haining, A Miller, V Mata. Substitutes: D Cherry, B Venter, M McCallum, A Ferreira, L Crosbie, C Shiel, N Chamberlain, C Dean.
Scarlets: J McNicholl; T Prydie, T Morgan, S Hughes (captain), S Evans; D Jones, D Blacker; P Price, M Jones, P Scholtz, M Jones, S Lousi, U Cassiem, J Morgan, S Kalamafoni. Substitutes: T Davies, K Mathias, A Jeffries, T Ratuva, E Kennedy, W Homer, A O’Brien, P Asquith.
Referee: B Blain (Scotland).
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