‘Defeat can make us stronger’
Grant Gilchrist believes that Edinburgh can bounce back from Sunday’s painful 56-3 loss to Racing 92 as a stronger team than they were going into the match.
Richard Cockerill’s side were out-classed, but captain Gilchrist said: “These dark days can be defining moments for teams. This could be a real opportunity for us to see where we need to be better.”
Grant Gilchrist believes that Edinburgh can bounce back from Sunday’s painful 56-3 loss to Racing 92 as a stronger team than they were going into the match.
Richard Cockerill’s side were out-classed in almost every area against the magnificent Parisians, but captain Gilchrist pointed out that it wasn’t all one-way traffic.
Edinburgh actually had two first-half tries disallowed, while Racing scored five tries during the last 20 minutes which turned a comprehensive defeat into an absolute drubbing.
“It’s always good to experience playing against teams like that,” claimed Gilchrist.
“It is hard at the minute because I hate losing and certainly hate losing in that manner, but these dark days can be defining moments for teams.
“This could be a real opportunity for us to see where we need to be better – and clearly that is in a number of areas – but also see areas where we did match up well.
“When we look back at the game there will be learning points, and we’ve got to move forward.”
Edinburgh were always outsiders in this Champions Cup last-16 match against one of the tournament favourites, but Gilchrist said that they were entitled to believe that they could cause an upset and are genuinely disappointed that they didn’t make it more of a contest.
“We went out there to put our game on them and we were second best by a long way,” he said. “We gave them exactly what we didn’t want to give them.
"With the outside backs they’ve got, we knew that they would be lethal with any loose turnovers or transition ball, and we paid the price.
“They had spells during the first half when we were on top, but we also had spells and we just didn’t manage to turn that into points – James Johnstone’s disallowed try early on and Hamish Watson being held up at the end of the half really hurt us. We were in the fight, but when we did get opportunities to put them under pressure, we either made an error at the lineout or lost the ball quickly in the sets.
“The scoreline obviously got worse when we were trying to chase the game at the end but the damage was done by that point.
“We knew against this kind of defence that you have to hold possession and put them under pressure, but we were too keen to try and make something happen out of nothing, which is a trap you fall into against these good sides.”
Edinburgh now have a couple of fallow weekends before the Rainbow Cup – which has been introduced as a oneoff competition this season to help integrate four South African franchises into the Guinness Pro14 after the summer – kicks-off on the weekend of April 24. “It has obviously been a bitterly disappointing season for us so far, but we now go into the Rainbow Cup and we have to attack that with a fresh attitude,” concluded Gilchrist.
“So, we’ll learn the lessons from this match and move on to the rest of the season.
"We can’t have it hanging over our heads because it is a new competition and we need to treat it differently.”