Blair demands Edinburgh maintain high standards
Coach wants consistency and issues warning about Castres rookies
I believe if we put in a performance like we did against Saracens, we’re going to get more wins than losses
IT is not always wise to identify a defeat as the benchmark for future performances. But in the case of Edinburgh’s loss to Saracens last weekend, Mike Blair has a strong case to make. Speaking yesterday after announcing his team to play Castres in today’s second round of Champions Cup pool games, the head coach did not attempt to pretend that things had gone perfectly in the 30- 26 defeat in London six days ago.
But he is convinced that the level of consistency that Edinburgh reached then is something they must aim to achieve every week.
There were some avoidable errors at the StoneX Stadium – some lineout throws went awry and too many scrum penalties were conceded. But in general Edinburgh bounced back well enough from their previous game, the loss in the league to Munster, to put Blair in an optimistic frame of mind ahead of this afternoon’s match against the French club.
“I believe if we put in a performance like we did against Saracens, we’re going to get more wins than losses,” he said. “There are always things that you’re going to feel you have to work on, and we’ve identified those areas, but the key to this game is consistency.
“It’s being able to put that performance out every week, that energy, putting the emotion into the performance. And I believe the guys are desperate to do that. It’s the first Champions Cup home game at the DAM Health and we want to show the crowd what we can do.
“We have talked since [ Munster] about how you wrestle back momentum and what’s important when you start to lose momentum,” he continued, referring to Edinburgh’s steep decline in the second half of that game after they had led at the break. “And I believe there were times in the Saracens game when we lost momentum, but we were able to work our way back in.”
Blair has made just three changes to his starting line- up from last week. The sole alteration to the back
division is at outside centre, where Matt Currie takes over from Mark Bennett, who went off against Saracens with a head injury and is still going through his return- to- play protocol.
In the pack, WP Nel starts at tighthead in place of Luan de Bruin and Glen Young is at lock instead of Jamie Hodgson. There are also three differences to this week’s bench, with hooker Tom Cruse being named instead of Patrick Harrison, Angus Williams coming in as tighthead replacement, and Chris Dean being preferred to Damian Hoyland as the backs replacement.
“We have spoken a lot this week about maintaining the standards set last weekend,” Blair added. “Defensively, it was probably our best shift of the season so far, and I thought we were excellent in and around the breakdown where we battled for everything. Champions Cup rugby is like Test- match rugby, so we need those levels of fight and intensity for the full 80 minutes this weekend as we take on a quality Castres side who were runners- up in last season’s Top 14.”
In addition to Bennett, eight players are listed as unavailable: Dave Cherry, Darcy Graham, Nick Haining, Cammy Hutchison, Henry Immelman, Adam McBurney, Sam Skinner and Hamish Watson.
Castres have omitted many of their best- known players from their squad, including Leone Nakarawa, the former Glasgow lock. Nonetheless, the Edinburgh coach is convinced that they have a lot of strength in depth, and he warned that the rookies they have picked will be fighting for regular places in the squad.
“These guys are going to come in and try to stake a claim by putting in a performance away from home. There’s an argument to say they’re going to give that even more. This is their opportunity to impress.
“They’ve got some real talent there. We’ve got to take them head on and concentrate on what we’re doing, set our own standards, set our own levels and consistency of performance. We can’t give them an opportunity to get into the game.”
The game could be moved to BT Murrayfield if necessary, but last night the odds were firmly on it going ahead at the DAM Health.
Edinburgh ( v Castres at the DAM Health Stadium, today, 1pm): E Boffelli; W Goosen, M Currie, J Lang, D van der Merwe; B Kinghorn, B Vellacott; P Schoeman,
S McInally, W Nel, G Young, G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, L Crosbie, V Mata. Substitutes: T Cruse, B Venter, A Williams, M Sykes, B Muncaster, C Shiel, C Savala, C Dean.
Castres: J Dumora; M Laveau, A Zeghdar, A Seguret, A Bouzerand; B Botica, J Blanc; Q Walcker, P Colonna, A Azar, G Maravat, T Hannoyer, B Delaporte ( captain), A Usarraga, K Kornath. Substitutes: B Humbert, L Guerois- Galisson, A Guillamon, F Vanverberghe, B Cope, J Raisuqe, R Kockott, T Larregain.
Referee: T Foley ( England).