AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!
Cockerill calls for his players to mete out 1872 Cup retribution
EdInBuRGH head coach Richard Cockerill has backed his players to gain revenge for last weekend’s defeat against Glasgow and show their fans how desperate they are to retain the 1872 Cup.
The capital club are expecting a crowd of more than 24,000 at BT Murrayfield today and Cockerill believes his men will be full of desire and determination to turn around the 20-16 loss to dave Rennie’s men.
‘We’ll have no problems with desire against Glasgow on Saturday,’ affirmed Cockerill as the capital club bid to win the trophy for the third season in a row. ‘It’s important for us. We’ve got to understand that it’s not just a game of rugby. We’re representing our city. We’re representing the people we play for, our families, and all the supporters.
‘We’re going to go full on and I’m sure Glasgow will do the same. These are no trials for the national team. We want the points, we want the bragging rights and we want to keep the 1872 Cup that we’ve won in the last two years. It’s important for everybody that we represent our city properly.
‘We’ve had a good review this week and the players have been able to get a bit of downtime with their friends and families over the Christmas break.’
Cockerill has ordered his players to toughen up as he felt, at times, they were bullied by the Glasgow players. Hearing that Warriors centre Sam Johnson had said exactly that after the game didn’t help his mood.
‘We can’t be as soft at the gainline as we were in that last five minutes of the match when we end up conceding from a line-out drive,’ he said. ‘Look, we clearly lost the physical battle at times and clearly our breakdown needs to be a little bit more robust. Whichever team gets the front foot, has the advantage.
‘I am always disappointed with the result when we lose but wasn’t overly so with the way we played because we did some good things.
‘our fine detail has to be a little better against them at BT Murrayfield and, by the way, Sam is entitled to his opinion.’
Cockerill has brought back Scotland prop WP nel into his starting team to clear up ‘issues at the scrum’ that contributed to his side’s defeat at Scotstoun.
The Warriors scrum was so dominant in the victory that their tighthead Zander Fagerson was named man of the match.
That didn’t sit well with experienced Edinburgh second-row Grant Gilchrist, who felt inexperienced referee Ben Blain didn’t give his team a fair crack of the whip when it came to decisions at the set-piece.
‘We wanted to scrum, but we spent all day on the ground,’ said Gilchrist after the game. ‘We didn’t get a scrum battle all day.
‘You watch our games in the lead-up to the Glasgow one and we don’t have many scrums go to the ground. We wanted to scrum and we feel frustrated that it was going to ground.
‘We want a battle, the crowd want a battle — they don’t want to see scrums going to the deck every time.’
Bringing nel, who has completed his recovery from a calf injury, back into the side for the match at BT Murrayfield is part of Cockerill’s attempts to improve the scrum.
‘Clearly, there were some issues at the scrum in that first game,’ he said. ‘I suppose it all depends how you interpret it. Clearly, we got on the wrong side of the referee’s interpretation and we’ve dealt with it this week in training.
‘We’ll just have to adjust in the game at the set-piece, which we didn’t do well and quickly enough last week. We need to be better at the set-piece this week.’
Cockerill believes nel can provide the answers to the problem and will relish taking on Glasgow for the first time this season.
‘WP can make a difference against Glasgow as he has got huge experience around the set-piece, both lineout and scrum,’ he continued. ‘He tackles well, cleans rucks well and does the nuts and bolts of the game very well.
‘WP gives us a tough edge and he is a very experienced player. He will be 34 in the summer and like all older players, he’s had some injuries and he has got some miles on the clock.
‘He came back from the World Cup and bizarrely picked up a calf injury training away from us. He was just keeping fit and ended up pulling his calf.
‘Last week, he wasn’t quite ready to play on an artificial surface at Scotstoun as it was always going to be a very quick game.
‘WP is a quality player who needs to be looked after but by the same token is part of an experienced front five I expect to perform against Glasgow. He’s certainly very hungry to play and prove his worth for us at the moment and obviously looking towards making it into the national team.’