Haining maintains blue- sky thinking ahead of derby
Edinburgh No. 8 insists there will be no
IT might be a deadrubber so far as league points are concerned, but momentum is huge in rugby and, for that reason alone, Edinburgh No. 8 Nick Haining insists that tomorrow night’s clash against Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield is a hugely important occasion for his side, ahead of their PRO14 play- off semi- final showdown against Ulster eight days later.
The Australian- born
29- year- old – who picked up three caps for Scotland during this year’s Six Nations, having qualified to wear the blue through his Dundonian grandmother – will be one of 10 changes to the capital club’s starting line- up when it is announced at lunchtime today, and he believes that Richard Cockerill has built enough strength in depth in the squad to ensure that the new look side is fully capable of backing up last weekend’s 30- 15 victory over the same opposition at the same venue.
“Once you get a culture of winning at a club, continuing that momentum and that culture leads into the next game and gives you confidence,” said Haining. “During a game, when things get dicey or might not be going your way, you find a way to win in the end.
“You saw that last week, there was never any panic in the squad, we were down about the 60th minute and came back to win with two good tries. That’s the winning culture we’re building here and that momentum will take us forward, leading perfectly into the semi- finals and finals.
“We want to improve on last week’s performance,” he added. “There are things that didn’t go well in the game that we want to make sure we get right this week, then take that into the semi- final against Ulster and hopefully beyond. Glasgow got their tries from us losing the ball and them scoring a couple of phases later, so it is those sorts of lapses in concentration that cost us, and we want to address that.”
Haining only arrived at the club last summer so he doesn’t have first- hand memories of the bad old days, but he has heard stories about that painful era when Edinburgh were habitual architects of their own downfall.
“That’s been touched on, but we don’t dwell on the past too much,” he shrugged. “It’s something we’re aware of but we feel it’s not going to be the case this time round. We’re set with our strategy, we know there will be times in the game when it doesn’t go well but we have systems in place and players who can deal with those pressures. You see from our results that we deal with that and still get the wins we need. There’s no reason why that can’t continue into these games and the finals.”
There is also the small matter of players using Friday night’s game to make themselves undroppable before that Ulster game, which is a particularly stiff challenge for Haining given that he plays in perhaps the most competitive position in the Edinburgh squad. As a No 8, he is in direct competition with star man Viliame Mata, while across the back- row there is raft of excellent options, including Magnus Bradbury, Hamish Watson, Jamie Ritchie and Luke Crosbie – which ensures a level of competition which inevitably drives up standards.
“I think it is quite fortunate that we haven’t played rugby for six months, so we’ve done a lot of training and that big build- up to these games has really created a buzz and anticipation in the team,” said Haining. “I know it is a dead- rubber but there are boys coming in who see places up for grabs in the finals, so they want to put their best foot forward for the coaches.
“We’ve got the confidence that everyone can step up,” he added. “That’s something Cockers [ Cockerill] is very big on – that one person can go out and the next person comes in and there is no drop off.
“The boys coming in haven’t played any rugby for the last six months because they didn’t play last week, so they’re all raring to go, myself included. There’s no reason to take the foot off the pedal. We’ll just hit the ground running and roll into this game, getting momentum going and leading into the semi- final on a good note.”
There was never any panic in the squad