Edinburgh captain blames players for poor run of defeats
EDINBURGH captain Jamie Ritchie has insisted that the players, not head coach Mike Blair, are to blame for the team’s poor run of results.
Friday night’s 32- 25 defeat by Glasgow was Edinburgh’s fourth consecutive loss in the league, where they last won against Cardiff at the end of October. And including their Champions Cup pool games, they have won only once in their last six outings.
Blair admitted after the loss to the Warriors that he felt “challenged” by his team’s form, but Ritchie was adamant that the squad had to take responsibility.
“We back Mike to the hilt and we’ll support him as well as we can, just as he supports us,” he said. “The dialogue between us and him is great. It’s not anything to do with him, it’s about our application. That’s something we need to get right on the field.
“No one likes losing. I wouldn’t say it’s affected our training or the environment at all. Guys are desperate to win and it’s frustrating when you don’t. But in terms of how we are as a collective, training is competitive, we work hard and that won’t change.
“We’re confident in our abilities, we know what we can do as a team, and it’s just about putting that together for 80 minutes.”
Apart from their loss to Munster, Edinburgh have at least picked up a losing bonus point in their recent defeats, and took the full five points from their victory over Castres. But in the case of that win over the French side as well as the narrow defeats, Ritchie believes his team have given the opposition too many chances to get back into games.
“I think we have to capitalise on our good performances,” he continued. “Part of that is that we’re probably letting our foot off the pedal a bit, or not putting teams away or allowing sides back into it.
“Against Saracens we played really well and then let them back into it, and a good team like that will stay ahead. Castres was probably similar as there were peaks and troughs, they came back into it, and it was probably closer than it should have been. For us, it’s just about trying to work out how we can get that 80- minute performance and put teams to bed. The great thing about rugby is you have the opportunity to go and make it right the following weekend. It will now be about having a good training week and trying to get it right against Zebre on Saturday.”