BRING IT ON

Kinghorn can’t wait to get his teeth into Cardiff in European showdown

BLAIR KINGHORN has spent the last few weeks picking up tips from Stuart Hogg — now he wants to put them into practice when Edinburgh Rugby play in a crucial European knock-out match on Saturday.

It has been a whirlwind spell for the 21-year-old, making his debut off the bench for Scotland in the historic Six Nations victory over England at Murrayfield and then scoring a try on his first start for his country in Ireland.

Both of those appearances came on the wing, but he will likely be back in his familiar full-back spot for Edinburgh’s season run-in in which they have a lot to play for in the Guinness Pro14 and the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

This coming weekend Edinburgh host Cardiff Blues in the quarter-final of the latter event and Kinghorn is determined to help them into the last four.

And he believes his recent spell in the international squad working with head coach Gregor Townsend and players like Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Sean Maitland has helped him take his game to the next level at just the right time.

‘It was really great to learn from experienced players in my position such as Hoggy, who was really helpful,’ he explained. ‘We worked on little things around the park such as positioning and communication and it gave me a lot to think about.

‘You can’t help but learn from experienced guys and there were plenty in that Scotland set-up.

‘It was a different challenge on the wing, but a challenge that I really liked. All the back three are connected in a way so it wasn’t too hard to slot in, the roles are quite similar.

‘I really, really enjoyed my time in the Scotland camp and I am now happy to be back with Edinburgh with loads of big games coming up.

‘This year the team are performing really well, we are backing up results week to week and training well.

‘The European quarter-final will be tough, but it is a home game at Murrayfield and we always feel good when we play there.’

In recent years there was a predictability about the way Edinburgh played. Under former head coach Alan Solomons they had a strong pack and tended to play quite a narrow game.

It worked at times, but not on a regular basis and it meant that exciting young backs like Kinghorn coming into the set-up did not get their hands on the ball as much as they would have liked.

Richard Cockerill has turned results — and the way Edinburgh play now — around.

And with accomplished players with a bit of flair about them in front of him Kinghorn is thriving.

‘It’s the brand of rugby that we are playing, it’s been working really well this year,’ the former Edinburgh Academy pupil said. ‘The back three and the centres are getting the ball in some space a lot more nowadays after the forwards are doing the hard yards for us.

‘I think our work rate this year is better, on the field and off the field. I feel like we are putting in the hard work behind closed doors, doing reviews and analysis and stuff like that which can give you the edge when it comes to a big game.

‘The consistency of training, the consistency of work rate throughout the whole season has been right up there and that’s showing in our results.

‘We are a good team in that we can turn over big teams. We are always in the match going into the last ten minutes and I think that is due to our mentality. We now have a bit of “dog” in us that sees us battle and not drop out of matches like we may have done in the past.’

Kinghorn is in no doubt that head coach Cockerill is the man driving the mentality shift, explaining: ‘He always tests you mentally, every week. Some of the stuff we are doing is tough and it does test you, but that creates good character in you.

‘When it gets tough in games you know that all the boys around you are with you and working together as a team and the opposition is definitely feeling worse.

‘He’s big on self-belief is Cockers. He tells you how it is, you can trust him if he says: “We are good enough to turn this team over”. It makes you believe because the work we have put in throughout the week has put us in the best position to perform on that given weekend.

‘By the time we get to a game we have ticked all the boxes and we just know that we are ready to play. I feel that the control we play with now comes from nine and ten who are our leaders on the field. Whoever is playing there at the moment, they are controlling the games really well and if we need to play territory, we play territory. If we have to slow it down, we can all do that.

‘We’ve become really good at staying in the fight for the whole game so we know that when it comes to that 80th minute, that 81st minute, we are there or thereabouts and in with a shout of getting the result that we and the fans want.’