Capital gains for Rich

SPORTS LOG

Edinburgh boss Richard Cockerill wants to use last night’s 52-14 win over Scarlets as a launchpad to become Scotland’s top team.

Cockerill watched his troops claim an eight-try haul at Murrayfield.

Now they look certs to earn a top-three finish in their Pro 14 section and seal a return to the Champions Cup.

Blair Kinghorn, Duhan van der Merwe, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Magnus Bradbur y crossed to earn a bonus point in 24 minutes.

Scarlets replied before the break through Tom Varndell and Dan Jones.

But Van der Merwe claimed No.2 and Luke Crosbie, Mark Bennett, Nathan Fowles scored to tighten Edinburgh’s grip on third place.

Cockeril set his sights on the Warriors and said: “Our next match is against Glasgow who have been this country’s top club for a while. We have the chance to change that.” Alan McManus made a flying start in his bid to qualify for snooker’s World Championship.

McManus leads 9- 0 from his first session against fellow Scot Rhys Clark and needs just one more frame to progress to the second of three qualifying rounds.

ButcompatriotStephen Maguire trails Basildon’s Allan Taylor 5-4. Sebastian Vettel snatched a Chinese Grand Prix pole position from Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonenwasquickest going into the final runs but Vettel clinched pole by 0.087 seconds. Lewis Hamilton starts from fourth for Mercedes.

COCKERILL dream