Richard Cockerill may have better back-row options available to him than Scotland’s international selectors, but the Edinburgh head coach insists that even with home advantage, his team can not be considered favourites for Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final meeting with Munster.
The quality of loose forwards is summed up by the fact that John Barclay, last year’s Scotland’s captain, Jamie Ritchie, the national team’s most consistent forward this season and Magnus Bradbury, the outstanding Scottish forward during the remarkable recent comeback against England, are among those vying for one place alongside Hamish Watson and Bill Mata.
“It’s a little bit of balance with Bill, and Hamish, Bradbury, Barclay, Ritchie there, (Luke) Crosbie - they’re all slightly different,” Cockerill acknowledged. “You have to try and get the balance right, because you know Bill will carry the ball lots, but he won’t tackle much, so there’s a few combinations there. Barclay did well last week, his experience is important, so it’s whether he’s done enough to get in the team.”
Since an Edinburgh pack that boasts further superiority over Scotland’s in the front-row, where South African Pierre Schoeman is ahead of Six Nations ever present Allan dell in the pecking order, they should have set-piece superiority, while those back-row options ought to ensure that they should not be overwhelmed at the breakdown as many teams are when facing Munster. However, as Cockerill pointed out, the Irish province’s understanding of what is required is founded on experience that Edinburgh cannot match in knockout encounters.
“They are a good side aren’t they? They have all the European history,” he said.“We have knocked off some big European teams. Munster are a big European team. We have a lot of respect for them and what they do and how they are coached but we are coming here to win.They have won it twice. They will have ambitions of being European champions. We are still a team that is growing.Are we expected to win Europe? Do we have ambitions to win Europe? No, we don’t because we are not a good enough side (but) I don’t want to give this opportunity away. I don’t want to be satisfied with thinking we have got to the quarters, we have done well. We have a good team and good players.
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“They are Munster. We are Edinburgh. This is their 18th time in the knock-out stages, this is the third for us. That means they are better than us. That expectation is always there. They have some very good players haven’t they? Their history will dictate they should be winning trophies. That puts the pressure on them.”
Which is what he is looking to put to advantage, since Cockerill’s tone could not contrast more with his words in terms of his true expectations. The Englishman may say that his team is not good enough to win the Champions Cup, but he knows that with a pack that is of Test quality, both teams know that Edinburgh have a chance of claiming a win that could transform how they are perceived in both the immediate and longer term future.
“I know they will treat us with respect because they know what they will get from us and what they will get from them,” said Cockerill.“We are going to go full blown into the battle and take them full on. We are going to enjoy the contest and see if we are good enough. We will try and out-Munster Munster. If we get it right we’ll beat them but we’ve got to get it right and we’ve got to front up. They’re used to winning games of this calibre. I’m not sure we are... yet, but this could be the starting point for us.”
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