Edinburgh morale still high, says Sutherland

MORALE remains high in Edinburgh’s camp despite the narrow loss to La Rochelle last week and the capital club can turn it around against Sale Sharks, believes Scotland prop Rory Sutherland.

Sutherland believes Edinburgh were close to beating “the form team in France” last weekend in the Heineken Champions Cup and that only a couple of tweaks are needed for the club to be competing with the best teams in Europe.

“I think the atmosphere’s really good (in the squad) and you have to take positives from that game,” said Sutherland.

“They’re the form team in France at the minute and we did a lot of good things in the game, we run them really close.

“It’s just a little bit of ill-discipline that let us down. I think we’ve got to take confidence out of that game.

“We’ve reviewed it and looked at the negatives but now it’s about looking at the positives and looking at next week, but the feeling in camp’s really good.”

Edinburgh will “flush that result” and also park the Scotland-England element, says Sutherland.

“This is a massive game, we’re going down there to win and put our best game on the park,” he continued.

“We always look forward to playing English teams but like any game you’ve got to try and park the emotional side of it and focus on the game.”

Sutherland is one of the few who has had a brilliant 2020, coming into the Scotland team at the start of the Six Nations and finishing the first part of the tournament as the cornerstone of a newly-solid scrum and quoted as a British and Irish Lions candidate.

That came after a long recovery from a groin muscle injury that threatened his career, and he admitted he got a scare during the Autumn Nations Cup game against Italy in October.

“I went over on my ankle in the scrum, I was lying there trying to get my ankle strapped to get back on and thinking ‘Oh no, it’s happening again,” he admitted.

“But we had it scanned on the Monday afterwards and it was the best possible outcome. I’ve got the guys at Scotland and the doctors to thank for that, they turned me round really quick and I was able to be ready for the Ireland game.” l Glasgow Warrriors’ Heineken Champions Cup clash with Lyon on Saturday has been called off – with 20 Warriors stars self-isolating following Sunday’s defeat to Exeter Chiefs.

Several Chiefs players and staff have returned positive Covid-19 tests in the wake of their 42-0 victory.

The decision to cancel the Glasgow v Lyon game was taken after discussions involving the club’s hierarchy, Public Health Scotland and Scottish Rugby.