Bradbury deserves a second chance...

RICHARD COCKERILL has already proven himself a strict disciplinarian. Straight-talking, bullish and rightly demanding, the Englishman is determined to knock Edinburgh into shape.

Therefore, his handling of the Magnus Bradbury incident has come as no surprise.

While at first he tried to keep the 22-year-old’s misdemeanour in-house, once the story broke he left no one in any doubt about how seriously he is taking it.

Cockerill has demanded all the details of the night in question, and expects an internal inquiry to discover just how his skipper came to suffer a head injury that ruled him out of the opening European Challenge Cup match against London Irish.

Bradbury has, rightly, been banished from the playing squad until the matter is resolved. One can only imagine that Cockerill has put the fear of God into the boy. But that’s where the matter should end — and Bradbury (right) should not be stripped of the captaincy. The public humiliation the back-row forward is no doubt feeling will be humbling to say the least. He is the son of SRU vice president Dee Bradbury, after all.

But there remains the real possibility that his lapse in discipline could also cost him the chance to be part of Gregor Townsend’s Scotland squad for the Autumn Test series.

Of course, Bradbury was wrong to be out in the early hours of the morning but it was six days before the next Edinburgh game. Nobody would have been any the wiser if he hadn’t been daft enough to fall over and bump his head off the pavement. This was not a police matter and nobody else was involved or hurt.

Cockerill could, therefore, take heed of the man-management of Aberdeen FC boss Derek McInnes, who had to deal with a similar incident two months ago when his player Gary Mackay-Steven had to be pulled out of the River Clyde after a night out. He gave his player a warning but allowed him to continue to play for the Dons.

The winger scored the winner against Hibs at Easter Road at the weekend and both McInnes and MackaySteven have moved on. Bradbury knows he let his team-mates down and has apologised to them. Cockerill seems more irritated than angry at his captain, making the point we were all young once. Bradbury certainly isn’t the first and won’t be the last rugby player to go out with his pals for a drink.

The Edinburgh head coach is in no rush to bring the investigation to a close and continues to make Bradbury sweat over what action will be taken against him.

A rap on the knuckles should be enough for the young man, this time at least.