Toolis says consistency needed for Edinburgh hopes
FAST starts are the key to Edinburgh getting their season back on track, says lock Ben Toolis, who knows that time is running out if they are to give themselves a fighting chance of qualifying for next season’s European Champions Cup.
With high-profile signings like Mark Bennett arriving next season, it is not just the Edinburgh players who will be hoping they can at least challenge for the top tier in Europe. Everybody involved with the national side knows the higher grade of competition is vital for the international players.
To have any chance of getting there, Edinburgh need to make up ground on Ulster, currently 18 points ahead of them, and Toolis recognises that winning against Leinster in Dublin would be an ideal start.
“We have not had the best time in the Guinness PRO12 – a lot of close losses in a lot of games we should have won,” he admitted. “To push ourselves closer to the top six, we need to win these games at the back end of the season.
“If the boys are serious, and I can tell that they are, then I am sure we are going to pull out a few good performances.
“If we did win at the RDS – I have played there a few times and I know what a tough place it is – it would give us that confidence rolling into the last part of the season. If we can beat Leinster at home, then we can beat anyone.”
As so often this season, a slow start was their undoing in Belfast last weekend. They were 24-5 down with the opposition having bagged a scoring bonus point, before they started to string their game together.
“That is the frustrating part, we have shown glimpses of the spectacular rugby we can play but we had let ourselves down in the first half,” said Toolis. “All that special stuff we can do and then we let ourselves down in the first half. We come back in the second half but we don’t have that consistency. We have won games, like Ulster [at home] earlier in the season and Harlequins away, when we have played for 80 minutes and got the win. It is just a consistency thing. We are on the edge, we are getting closer to being more consistent but these little things are letting us down. We are getting there and the boys know it.”