No denying Edinburgh are the top dogs now
EDINBURGH having the upper hand over Glasgow Warriors is the new normal — and even Richard Cockerill will have to accept it.
Ever since the Englishman took over three years ago, he has tried to take the pressure off his team by playing down their chances ahead of big games.
He was at it again after the capital club’s emphatic 30-15 Pro14 derby win over Glasgow that’s secured them a home play-off semi-final against Ulster.
‘In the semi-finals, we will be the least fancied for sure — and that’s fine, because we probably deserve to be,’ Cockerill told BBC Radio Scotland. ‘Of the four teams that are going to be in it, historically, we are the smaller team.’
To be fair to Cockerill, he did go on to say that, on their day and with a full squad, they are good enough to win any game.
But playing the underdog card in any capacity nowadays is fooling nobody.
It was a clever approach when youngsters such as Blair Kinghorn and Darcy Graham were coming through and the South African pair of fly-half Jaco van der Walt and winger Duhan van der Merwe were settling in to Scottish rugby.
Nowadays Kinghorn and Graham are established internationals, while the two ‘vans’ are set to represent Scotland through residency by the end of the year.
Cockerill has done a great job assembling a top-class side who have not only made the league semi-finals but have a European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Bordeaux next month.
He has Scotland internationals like Hamish Watson, Grant Gilchrist, Stuart McInally, Rory Sutherland and W P Nel, who are all vastly experienced. Van der Merwe — as he showed when he cut through the Glasgow defence to set up Nic Groom’s second try — is a real find.
Underdogs with that lot? No chance. No inferiority complex from that group of players.
Even Watson admitted before the derby that Edinburgh were favourites and had to get used to the pressure that tag brings.
The way they didn’t panic when they were 15-13 behind at halftime and turned it into a 30-15 win shows the level of maturity within their ranks.
Edinburgh are a settled team, full of leaders and one who are going places. No wonder Cockerill said he was keen to extend his contract because ‘I’ll be b ****** d” if I’m letting someone else take over and ride on the back of what we’ve built’.
Not exactly the words of a man who thinks his team go into every big game as underdogs.
The pendulum has swung towards his team in terms of dominance and, for the foreseeable future, it will be Glasgow who are playing catch up.
That will be hard to take for Warriors fans who have filled Scotstoun year after year, but they will have to grin and bear it.
For now, Edinburgh are the reigning kings of Scottish rugby — regardless of what Cockerill may want you to think.