Cockerill calling for Edinburgh to hit new heights
RICHARD Cockerill says Edinburgh need to produce the best displays of his capital reign if they are to have any chance of securing backto-back victories over Montpellier and Toulon.
The showpiece encounters with the French giants kick off the club’s return to Heineken Champions Cup action after four years in the lesser Challenge Cup competition.
And although Cockerill uncharacteristically played down his side’s chances yesterday, he will have plans to take down Vern Cotter’s Montpellier in France on Saturday followed by Patrice Collazo’s Toulon at Murrayfield the following weekend.
‘We are not playing a semimotivated Stade Francais or London Irish in the Challenge Cup any more,’ he said.
‘Montpellier and Toulon are two big teams who would like to think they can win the competition. It’s like playing a Leinster or Saracens.
‘There’s no pressure on us to win the competition but I’m sure there is for teams like Montpellier and Toulon. I’ll be more than delighted if we get anything from the game against Montpellier first up on Saturday.
‘Certainly, if we are to win over the next two weeks against them and then Toulon, we have to play better than we’ve done in the 15 months since I arrived.’
The Edinburgh head coach added: ‘If we go in and surprise people then I’ll be surprised myself. If we lose, I suppose we’re supposed to.
‘I just hope we play our best games, that we physically turn up and we enjoy the experience, which means we don’t get smashed on the scoreboard.
‘I want the players to not worry about the result too much and just go and play and measure up against these guys.
‘That will be an interesting one for us. Generally, as a team, we tend to perform best when the pressure is off us. I don’t think anybody expects us to go to Montpellier and win.
‘But we’re going with a mindset to win and not just keep the score down. On the face of it, they should beat us but this is sport, so we’ll see.’
Cockerill believes Cotter will have added motivation against Edinburgh given his former role as Scotland head coach.
‘It’s a Scottish team coming to his club, so I don’t imagine Vern having an unmotivated team,’ said the former England hooker.
‘He knows us well and he won’t want to be getting beaten at home by Edinburgh.’
Fly-half Johan Goosen suffered a serious ankle injury in the 29-17 win over Toulon in the French Top 14 on Sunday but Cockerill insists Montpellier have more than enough bigname players to hurt his side.
‘They will field a big physical team come what may, with a winger bigger than anyone in our forward pack. That’s what money buys,’ said Cockerill.
‘At the weekend, Johan Goosen hurt himself and Nemani Nadolo didn’t start. Fran Steyn didn’t play either. That’s probably our entire budget they spent on those three players.
‘If they’ve got injury issues and don’t pick those big hitters then I’ll be delighted. But they’re at home and I’m sure the depth of their squad is more than capable of coping with that.
‘Regardless of who they have got or haven’t got, their pockets are a lot deeper than ours and that buys quality. They will need to be a little bit off for us to beat them.
‘We’re not going to force them into an arm wrestle because that’s going to make it tough for us. We keep ball in play in our Pro14 matches for over 40 minutes. Theirs is just over 30 minutes in the Top 14.
‘If we can keep lots of ball, get quick ball and put them under pressure, we’ll create opportunities.
‘Against Treviso and Cheetahs, we got multiple opportunities to score tries. If we get four or five opportunities against Montpellier, we’re going to have to take three or four of them to have a chance.’