Edinburgh had become one of the poorest full-time professional teams in the sport by the time he took charge in the summer of 2017, but Richard Cockerill now believes he has put together a squad that is capable of global domination.

Appointed to sort out a squad that had never reached the Pro14 play-offs since their introduction, or qualified for the Champions Cup following its re-branding, he achieved both at the first attempt and his team has earned further respect across the Continent this season by bringing a Champions Cup quarter-final to Scotland for the first time.

Cockerill was critical of the culture within the club on taking over and he made it clear that he believed the squad needed to be strengthened, but he has gradually addressed both, so much so he now feels entitled to make the bullish claim that as many as six members of their first choice pack are worthy of being considered “world class”.

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“If you look at our forward pack, WP Nel, Stuart McInally and both our locks (Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis) have proven they can play on the world stage,” he said. “Bill Mata we think is also pretty good. Hamish Watson, on his day, can compete with anybody. Those guys are only going to get better, so we have some real talent in the squad. Why not have some ambition to be the best in the world?”

Scottish rugby officials have got into a mess in the past when making similar sounding claims, those arguing that winning the 2015 World Cup was a justifiable strategic business target having invited what was always destined to prove justified ridicule from south of the border. There remains a difference between strategy and aspiration, however, while Cockerill has the credibility of having past involvement with genuine world-leading set-ups in Leicester and Toulon.

His growing confidence in his squad meanwhile looks justified by the quality of the team he is fielding for tonight’s Pro14 meeting with the Dragons, which is all the more impressive when it is considered that front five forwards McInally, Nel, Gilchrist and Allan Dell, as well as flanker Jamie Ritchie and full-back Blair Kinghorn are all unavailable because of their on-going Six Nations Championship commitments.

“Obviously having Toolis back from the national team is a big boost for us. (Magnus) Bradbury coming back to fitness with (Luke) Crosbie and Mata is a really good back row. Fraz McKenzie, (Pietro) Ceccarelli and (Pierre) Schoeman... it’s a really good forward pack,” said Cockerill. “There is some real impact off the bench too. I am happy with what we’ve picked and apart from Kinghorn it is pretty much our first choice back line.”

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Cockerill also believes the increasing maturity of key players is reflected in what he is able to expect when a player such as Ben Toolis, who started as part of an all-Edinburgh front five for Scotland in their win against Italy, but was dropped in favour of Glasgow’s Jonny Gray for Saturday’s defeat by Ireland, returns disappointedly from international duties in these windows.

“Probably last year it would have been tough for Ben, but he’s a bit more experienced now in coming and going between club and country,” he observed.

“He’s a good club man, he wants to come and contribute. It was obviously a little bit frustrating for him not to be involved last weekend as much as he’d have liked to be, so he’s come back, he’ll run the line-out for us against the Dragons and he’s a world-class player.

“It’s good that we have guys who are prepared to come back in on Monday to get stuck into training and play for their clubs. Hopefully he’ll go back into the Scotland squad ready to play and be involved in Paris.”

The match also provides the squad’s most senior player to re-assert himself in a season in which he has struggled to bring his influence to bear.

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As Scotland’s most capped player, Ross Ford was for many years an automatic choice for Edinburgh. However, this will be just the hooker’s sixth start of the season and the team has lost three of the previous five, including surprise defeats at Italian strugglers Zebre and against tonight’s opponents while, for all that he scored a try which should have made the game same after coming off the bench, he was on the field when they suffered their latest setback against the Southern Kings last month.

Ex-hooker Cockerill offered his full backing to the former Scotland captain, after selecting him ahead of Dave Cherry, who was one of three uncapped players to be preferred to Ford by the Scotland management for this season’s Six Nations squad.

“Ross has played quite a bit this year. I want to pick what I think is right for each game,” he explained.

“Dave Cherry has been away from us for a couple of weeks and Ross gets the start this time round. Cherry will impact off the bench and part of his development is to come in and out the side. Ross has done everything with us and he gets the opportunity to start this week. Simple as that.”