TITLE BID IS OVER BUT I’LL STAY, CLAIMS COCKERILL

FRUSTRATED Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill believes the Pro14 title is already beyond his team but insists he has no intention of quitting the club. After his side’s latest embarrassing defeat — 43-14 to Ulster at BT Murrayfield on Monday, his side’s fifth loss in seven games — that frustration at working with an under-strength squad was clear to see. Cockerill is missing 13 players on international duty and is working on a reduced budget because of Covid — but that doesn’t make things any easier to accept. With SRU chief executive Mark Dodson as well as interim chairman John Jeffrey watching from the stands, his team let in seven tries against the Belfast outfit, who are unbeaten after eight matches. ‘I would say the league is probably beyond us, wouldn’t you?’ said Cockerill, who is contracted until 2023. Sounding as low as he had ever been during his time at Edinburgh, he admitted he was possibly wearing his heart on his sleeve so much because he was hurting from such a heavy defeat to Ulster. When asked whether he was so frustrated he may resign, he replied: ‘No, no. My job is to coach this team and work with my bosses and work through this. Work with Mark (Dodson) and we have to get through the other side of this. People have to understand that we were playing a semi-final against Ulster which was tight and, three months later, it is a 40-point difference in a game. ‘This is not a problem that is going to go away, is it? Our funds are going to get less, not more. Therein lies the trick of trying to manage this squad and having double figures of Scotland players away through Test match windows and moving forward having smaller budgets. The concern for me is that this is going to be more of the norm. ‘We were getting to the point when we were starting to compete with teams and my concern is that our competitors don’t seem to be losing players or cutting budgets like we have and Glasgow are the same. People have to understand where we are at.’