Some of Edinburgh’s leading international players are being rushed back into action earlier than had been planned as a result of Edinburgh’s desperation for points as they bid to reach the Pro14 play-offs for a second successive year.
International pair John Barclay and Matt Scott ahead of next weekend’s Champions Cup quarter-final were always going to be brought in at the first opportunity after lengthy lay-offs, albeit their inclusion in the starting line-up was something of a surprise. Head coach Richard Cockerill wants to give both a chance to test their match fitness, however and while he would ideally have preferred to have given more of those who were heavily involved in the Six Nations Championship campaign a week off he believes they now need to win every remaining Pro14 match to reach play-offs.
While, then, Scotland captain Stuart McInally, second row Grant Gilchrist and flanker Jamie Ritchie are rested, he has reached agreement with the international team management and Murrayfield officialdom that their colleagues Darcy Graham, Hamish Watson, Ben Toolis and WP Nel can all start tonight less than a week after doing so at Twickenham, with fellow Scotland starters Allan Dell and Magnus Bradbury on the bench, along with Simon Berghan, who was also a replacement against England, .
“To be fair, if we hadn’t put ourselves in a hole around qualifying for the play-offs then I would probably have made different decisions,” Cockerill admitted. “Looking at resting guys and game time over the season, we’ve been able to put a good side out that should see us be more than competitive. The union realise the importance of the next five, six, seven weeks for what Edinburgh are playing in.”
Defeats to Southern Kings, Cardiff Blues and Treviso while they were depleted by Six Nations calls have seen Edinburgh drop from second place in their conference to fifth, adrift of Ulster who are currently occupying the third and last of the play-off places in Conference B.
They now face a fearsome run-in with this Leinster encounter to be followed by meetings with Conference rivals Ulster and the Scarlets before they face neighbour Glasgow in the last of this season’s derbies and each of those matches are now potentially almost as important as the Champions Cup quarter-final against Munster next weekend since they need to reach the play-offs to be sure of mixing with the elite again next season.
“I can’t predict if the other teams are going to win or lose, but the best way for us to look at it is that we need to win games,” said Cockerill. “We are seven points behind third place so that gives them a fair advantage. We need to make sure that we start winning games and this is a very important one. Unless other results are very favourable to us we are going to have to win all four games.”
On the plus side, the return to fitness of Barclay, who will make his debut for Edinburgh around a year after he signed for them, having been sidelined for 10 months as a result of an Achilles tendon rupture and Scott, who has been out for five months because of a head injury, comes at an excellent time as they prepare for the matches that will define their season.
“Fortune has conspired against us a little bit, but hopefully with a huge game coming up in Europe next weekend and in the conference as well, things will drop into place and a little bit of luck will fall our way,” said Cockerill.
“From a conference point of view, we’ve put ourselves into a hole that we’re going to have to work very hard to get out of, so hopefully all the stars are aligning and we’ll have a good finish to the season.”
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