Richard coaches like he played... full of intensity and commitment
GOOD things are definitely happening for Edinburgh Rugby right now — and long may it continue.
They’re in the semi-finals of the Pro14, the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup, they have a team full of young Scottish internationals, a new purpose-built stadium to play in — and they have a damn good coach!
Quite the transformation from a few years ago when they were drifting along and completely in Glasgow Warriors’ shadow.
That hasn’t been down to just one man, but there is one man who has had a huge influence, and that is Richard Cockerill.
He arrived at Edinburgh in 2017 from Toulon, which was a remarkable move in itself.
Toulon may not have been the powerhouse of French and European rugby that they had been a few years earlier, but they still had an owner with deep pockets, a squad full of stars and a location on the south coast of France that took some beating.
I was very surprised when Cockerill — or Cockers as he’s universally known — decided to swap a Mediterranean beach for Cramond beach!
He said all the right things on his arrival about stepping out of Glasgow’s shadow, needing proper investment from Scottish Rugby and making Edinburgh a real force in the European game. Just words back then, but words he has brought to life three years later.
There’s no doubt Scottish Rugby have shifted their focus from the west end of the M8 to the east and have fully resourced Edinburgh, making them the top team in the country.
It looks like Scotland can still only fully fund one of the teams to be completely competitive, which is a shame — but I’d rather have one winning trophies rather than two partially-funded teams delivering mid-table results.
When Glasgow were on top, Gregor Townsend received all the backing. Now it’s Cockers and he has done some job with Edinburgh.
I go a long way back with him. When I joined Bath in the mid 90s, Leicester were our main rivals. Sure, we had the local rivals in Bristol and Gloucester, but it was Leicester who were our main challengers for the league — and we didn’t like each other.
The two clubs were very different, which meant the players were also very different. This fuelled the rivalry.
Cockers was part of a formidable Leicester pack and the B of the infamous ABC club, Leicester’s much-vaunted front row of Graham Rowntree, Darren Garforth and the man himself. Before professional rugby, Leicester used letters rather than numbers on their shirts!
The Bath-Leicester games back then were ferocious and Cockers was right at the heart of things, with his opponent usually my team-mate, Graham Dawe.
Dawsey was a Cornish farmer and as hard as nails. They didn’t like each other and it showed. It was a time when you could get away with things on the pitch that would now result in red cards and multiple weeks’ suspensions. But not back then.
It was the Wild West at times and I had a ringside seat watching Dawsey and Cockers batter the living daylights out of each other.
When one of them was throwing the ball into the lineout, the other would be shouting in his face about what he would do to him in the next ruck.
At times, I was frightened and made sure I was nowhere near the ruck just in case he missed Dawsey and got me! There was an intensity to Cockers that I admired. He wasn’t the biggest but he used other ways to make up for the lack of weight and size.
He was the emotional heartbeat of the team, never shy about speaking to you or the ref and utterly committed in everything he did.
He has brought all these traits to his coaching career as well, but he has matured and mellowed over time.
He stopped playing for Leicester and started coaching them, so he coached the Leicester way of doing things. He was very successful, winning three Premierships and making countless finals.
He was doing what he loved at a club that he loved and a club that loved him. Until they started losing, the business of rugby kicked in and Cockers left his spiritual home of Welford Road.
His brief stay at Toulon opened his eyes a bit. He saw there was a different way to play and coach.
He has had his moments with Edinburgh when he has lost it with players and/or officials from the side of the pitch but, by and large, he is calmer and more calculated now as a coach. And it’s working.
The players like playing for him, they want to play for him, and that is key in modern-day rugby.
Cockers has been brilliant for Edinburgh and this has been reflected in games like tonight’s semi-final against Ulster — and the new contract that will keep him in the capital for a few more years so he can finish the job he started.