Coach’s food for thought

IF Richard Cockerill still needed to learn precisely what he has let himself in for by agreeing to become Edinburgh’s head coach next season, all the evidence was laid bare for him in Friday night’s Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat by La Rochelle.

There were some fine individual performances in the 32-22 loss, notably by Hamish Watson, and there were also extended passages of play which showed how well the team can play when they rediscover their self-confidence. But those merits were more than counter-balanced by some dismal play in the first half, and poor decision-making late in the second when Edinburgh were just seven points behind and pressing for the score that could have taken the tie into extra time.

It was a woefully familiar story from a team who have now lost their last seven games, made all the worse by the fact this was in effect their last meaningful match of the season, against distinguished opponents who lead the French Top 14.

“Little errors are costing us,” Watson said. “Everyone knows we can attack well. We showed that again tonight: we can score from anywhere. But there were little errors, knock-ons, stupid off-loads that we shouldn’t be doing, not exiting properly and our set-piece struggled a bit as well.

“We did play well at times, but we gave ourselves too much to do. We’re quite a young squad. When we went a few tries down, maybe confidence went a bit. That’s when the small little errors creep in that maybe wouldn’t be there if you were on a good run.”

One of the key questions for Cockerill, presuming he is given some funds, is the extent to which he should rebuild the squad. Alasdair Dickinson, Allan Dell, John Hardie and Willem Nel were among the internationals missing from the team, so at least the incoming coach knows he has experience to call on. And, as Watson pointed out, some of the team’s least experienced players have a lot of talent, so dropping them from the front ranks could be a retrograde step.

“All those young players are getting so much rugby now that they’ll be in such a good position for years to come,” the flanker added.

It may well do in the medium to long term. More immediately, however, Edinburgh could do with bringing in a couple of hardened individuals, above all to a back division which promises a lot, but at the moment is achieving little.