CAPITAL BOSS IN A FLAP WITH HIS RULE BREAKERS

EDINBURGH head coach Richard

Cockerill has slammed one of his academy players for testing positive for Covid-19 but insisted it had not contributed to their poor performance against Bordeaux-Begles.

Cockerill was furious at the actions of the player and three of his academy team-mates who had broken Scottish Government and SRU health guidelines to attend a house party. All four are currently self-isolating and are set to be disciplined by the club and the SRU.

‘It was no distraction to the performance, but it was a distraction to me and people up the chain because we have to deal with the situation, which is disappointing,’ he said.

‘I’m disappointed by the players’ behaviour. They’ve let down the whole team, simple as that. They know how they should behave, they know all the things that have been put in place to get games to be played and crowds in the stadium. I’m disappointed that they chose to ignore it because they think those rules didn’t apply to them.’

Cockerill conceded that a poor start had made it nearly impossible for his team to fight back against Bordeaux.

‘We can’t give a side like that 14 points of a start,’ he said. ‘If you look at the scoreboard at the end, we rallied well and put ourselves in contention to win the game. We tried to do that, but we made the odd error, which is normal.

‘The effort and the composure we showed to get back in the game, be competitive and push to actually win the game was credit to all the players. You have to be careful and be realistic about where we’re at when we’re playing at this level in this company.

‘A lot of these guys haven’t been in this arena for long, so we have to be realistic about where we are. But we are heading in the right direction.’

LEICESTER’S European Challenge Cup tie with Castres today has been cancelled after three of the French side’s players tested positive for coronavirus. Tigers now go straight into the semi-finals as Castres have to forfeit their quarter-final match.