HAUNTED BY AN OLD GHOST
Tonight’s ref is a former player Cockerill once FIRED... but capital coach is unfazed by talk of bias and has total trust in official
IT SEEMS entirely in keeping with these strange days that Edinburgh’s Pro14 semi-final against Ulster tonight should provide its very own quirk of fate.
In fairness, while there will be no fans present at BT Murrayfield, there was little chance of it being a dull affair. Certainly not when Richard Cockerill is involved.
The Edinburgh boss is one of the game’s larger-than-life characters and he has inspired his side to the brink of their first domestic final.
In their way stand the imposing Irish giants and in the middle, well, that’s where the intrigue really begins to ramp up.
The referee for tonight’s game is 35-year-old Frank Murphy, a former Irish rugby player. During his professional career, he turned out for three sides — Munster, Connacht and, sandwiched in between, Leicester Tigers. Indeed, he was brought to the Tigers by none other than Cockerill, who also dispensed with his services.
While Edinburgh fans were left wondering this week whether a referee from Wales or England could not have been handed the tie, Cockerill was preparing to face a ghost from his past. So does he fear he will be haunted by Murphy come kick off? No chance.
‘Greg Garner (head of Pro14 referees) rang me about that, asked me if I had an issue with an Irishman refereeing the game, and I just said: “Is he the best referee?”,’ said Cockerill.
‘Frank’s a good referee. You watch last weekend when he refereed the game between Connacht and Munster. He sent two players off, others to the bin.
‘He referees exactly what’s in front of him and doesn’t care that it might affect the game or not — he just referees exactly what he sees, which is great.
‘Look, if he’s the best referee, he’s the best referee. He’s not going to have any bias to either side, regardless of the relationships or the nationalities. He’s going to referee exactly what’s in front of him. I trust Frank to do that and I’ve got no reason why I shouldn’t.
‘You know my relations with players. I hired him and then fired him at Leicester (Murphy left to join Connacht after two years), so maybe he’s happy with me and unhappy with me in equal measure.
‘He started in the Premiership final with Leicester that we won against Gloucester in 2007, so he’s got some happy memories.
‘Frank has transitioned to refereeing very well. He’s progressed over the last 24 months into a very good referee. The two referees that have been picked this weekend for the two Pro14 semi-finals are the two form referees.’
Knowing Murphy won’t tolerate any foul play based on the way he dished out the cards to his former clubs last weekend, Cockerill has demanded controlled aggression from his squad.
‘They know if you tackle someone high and your shoulder hits their head, you’re going to get sent off,’ he said. ‘If you lead with your elbow and hit someone in the face, you’re going to get sent off.
‘There’s been lots of attention paid to the new interpretation, but the laws are still there for everybody to follow as normal.
‘We would hopefully be as disciplined as we normally are. We’re not a particularly highly penalised team, and we very rarely get guys sent off the field, so I hope that continues for both sides.’
The match may be behind closed doors, but Cockerill believes the edge and desire is there to help them into the final after being pleased to see some friction in training.
‘There’s that little bit of tetchiness around training, of competitiveness,’ he said. ‘Some guys are obviously very disappointed they are not starting, so that always lends an edge to training.
‘We have a hungry squad and we know that we’re good enough to live in this company. I’ve no doubt that if we play our best game, we’ll give ourselves a great opportunity to win.
‘We don’t feel like party poopers any more, we know that we’re good enough and we’ve earned the right to be here.
‘The boys are experienced, there’s a lot of good quality players on the field, and we’ve been in these situations before in the last two or three years and now we have to show on Saturday night that we can deliver.
‘We’ve had three years playing together as this group and they know this should be their time. Finals and semi-finals are generally won by the teams that make the least mistakes. They are never normally a great spectacle, it’s about who can deliver the basics well and we want that to be us.’
Cockerill has no injury worries, with the main talking point being his decision to bring ‘world-class’ Ben Toolis straight back into his starting team despite his lack of match practice. The big second row wasn’t involved in either of the two back-to-back Pro14 matches against Glasgow Warriors as he underwent shoulder surgery over the summer.
Cockerill revealed they had been easing him back into action with a view to starting him in the club’s biggest game of the season and didn’t want to risk him before then.
‘Ben has had shoulder surgery and has been coming back quite conservatively from that as we knew we wanted him back for the semi-final,’ said Cockerill. ‘We didn’t rush him back against Glasgow because there was no need.
‘He has been training fully for the last two weeks and he is such good quality you have to pick him if he is available for selection. Him and Grant Gilchrist are such a great partnership.
‘He is not as match-fit as we would have liked, but he has worked hard away from the group during lockdown and since we have been back. He is desperate to play. Ben will be hugely valuable and have a huge impact on the game. Ben is a world-class player and he will play as he is a cut above most second rows.
‘We also have Jamie Ritchie available and he starts on the bench as he had quite a nasty dislocation of his finger which is now good to go. He has done everything asked of him this week and is desperate to play.’