COCKERILL’S EDINBURGH SHAKE OFF THEIR INFERIORITY COMPLEX

EDINBURGH head coach Richard Cockerill put it best after a narrow 21-15 defeat to Montpellier in the Heineken Champions Cup. ‘No more excuses for us not doing well in Europe from now on,’ he said. His honesty was refreshing. For far too long, coaches at the capital club — Michael Bradley and Alan Solomons among them — have been claiming they don’t have enough quality players to compete with the big boys of France and England.

That was despite the fact that Edinburgh had teams packed full of Scotland internationals.

Even Cockerill appeared to be buying into such tedious defeatism before Saturday’s game when he claimed he would be ‘pleasantly surprised’ if his team took anything from the opening European match in France.

Maybe the canny Englishman was just deliberately talking down their chances. It certainly looked like it. His team gave the French an almighty fright and they could — and probably should — have won this game, leaving instead with a losing bonus point.

Certainly, the performance of his starting side — including 11 Scotland internationals and Fiji No8 Bill Mata — belied the notion that Edinburgh should have any kind of inferiority complex going into next weekend’s clash with Toulon at Murrayfield.

‘We’re not worthy’ is a phrase no longer applicable to this Edinburgh team.

Even former Scotland head coach Vern Cotter admitted his Montpellier side were fortunate to win.

‘Edinburgh have a lot of international experience and they’re a confident side,’ he said. ‘They could very easily have won. We were lucky.’

You could understand why Cotter seemed so relieved at the final whistle.

Edinburgh showed that they more than deserve their place at Europe’s top table.

Mistakes ultimately cost them victory, with a missed tackle from Blair Kinghorn gifting Montpellier a try and an obstruction by Simon Berghan denying Kinghorn one.

Young winger Darcy Graham played well in his first European game, as did centre Chris Dean, whose magnificent tackle on Louis Picamoles denied the hosts a fourth try and winning bonus point in the final minutes.

And his intervention could yet prove to be significant when the final qualification points are tallied up.

There was also a man-of-thematch performance from Mata and an early star turn from captain Stuart McInally before he had to go off due to illness at half-time.

The second-row pairing of Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis, meanwhile, were absolutely brilliant and won some superb line-out ball.

All this against a star-studded Montpellier team boasting the likes of Picamoles, South African World Cup-winner Ruan Pienaar and his fellow countrymen the Du Plessis brothers, Bismarck and Jannie.

On this evidence Edinburgh are good enough to be in contention for qualification from Pool 5, with Toulon up next then Newcastle Falcons home and away.

Cockerill is right. There can be no excuses from here on in.