Cockerill keeps the faith for Edinburgh
EDINBURGH’S hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions Cup may have been damaged by their 22-10 loss to Munster on Saturday night, but they have certainly not been extinguished, according to head coach Richard Cockerill.
A top-three finish is the only guarantee of a berth in European rugby’s premier competition, and Edinburgh, who have five games left, are 11 points adrift of third-placed Scarlets in PRO14 Conference B. However, they have two matches in hand on the Welsh side, who they meet at Murrayfield on Saturday in what Cockerill believes has become one of a run of must-win matches for his team.
“We’ve got to beat the sides about us, which is Scarlets next week, then Benetton,” the head coach said. “Those are our next two games, so we’ve got to get the points from both those games, it’s as simple as that.
“We play Cardiff, we play Connacht, we play Dragons, so there’s still an opportunity for us to get into the top three. That’s our objective and we’ll keep aiming for that.”
Victory in four of those five remaining games could conceivably be enough for Edinburgh to achieve that objective, but to do that they will have to play at a consistently higher level than they have been able to do so far this season, in which they have only won four out of their 11 league games. They will also be without a majority of their Scotland internationals, making their task all the more implausible.
“Obviously, we’ll have very few of our Test players back for this period. That’s just the nature of it,” Cockerill said. “Our Test players will be unavailable for two-thirds of this season, which is the way this season has turned out to be. Nobody’s fault, but we just need to keep battling on.”
Meanwhile, Rufus McLean has agreed a contract extension with Glasgow after impressing head coach Danny Wilson during his first season as a professional.
The 20-year-old, who was on the wing against Ulster on Friday but can also play at fullback, made his debut against Edinburgh in January and was invited to train with the full Scotland squad this month.