Cockerill: It’s a really big step forward in our development
EDINBURGH coach Richard Cockerill had every right to be proud of how his team played to retain the 1872 Cup at Scotstoun yesterday and, indeed, was quite correct in praising their efforts.
And, after the capital side’s victory at Murrayfield last week, the Edinburgh coach was keen to put the record straight yesterday.
Reflecting on seven days ago and Edinburgh’s impressive 23-7 victory in the capital, Cockerill said: “It was more about how disappointing they were than how good we were.
“Today we’ve proved we were good last week, and we were probably better this week,” said the former Leicester hooker who saw his side take Glasgow on up front yesterday and comprehensively beat them.
“Every part is a deciding factor. Just because they play differently to us, it’s not better or worse – it’s just different. We’ve got a good pack, we work hard at it, so why wouldn’t you use it as a weapon? Same as everything else.
“It makes sense. If you find a weakness, keep going at the weakness. Simple as that. Their pack has been talked up a lot, so have some of their recruits in that front five, and ours were better.
“This [Edinburgh] pack has not been this dominant against this [Warriors] team before, has it? So, we work hard at it. You have to earn the right to do it.
“You cannot just turn up and expect dominance. The only other team that has won here this season is Saracens – that’s good company to be in.
“We needed the points more than anything else.
“The bigger picture isn’t the 1872 Cup. That’s irrelevant. We needed the points because we haven’t been good enough in other parts of our season. But the last four weeks have proved that if we get the players on the field and we have the right mentality then we can win big games. And we’ve done that.”
There is a feeling that Edinburgh put a marker down over the past week against Glasgow.
“I’m delighted with the performance. The players deserve the credit. They played really well and they deserved to win. I think it’s a really big step forward in our development as a team,” said Cockerill.
“Last week can be put down to they [Glasgow] didn’t execute or whatever – there were lots of things
said about our performance last week and how boring we were.
“We have come here and we’ve played all the rugby and we were the better side. They [Glasgow] are a really good side who we respect immensely, but it was a really good test for us coming here.
“They knew what was coming. We knew what was coming from them. And, to be fair, we pretty much controlled the game from start to finish.
“We knew they were going to come firing. They’d made changes, and that’s a bloody good team. And they are a good side.
“But when we play our game, and play it to the best of our ability, then we are tough to break down and we were tonight.”
Equally delighted was Edinburgh and Scotland lock Grant Gilchrist.
“We’re really proud of the effort and the execution of our game plan,” he added. “To back it up is a really good feeling and we’re really proud of
To be fair, we pretty much controlled the game from start to finish
ourselves. We knew this is one of the hardest places to go in Europe and we knew the size of the challenge.
“We were really excited to prove we can take our game on the road and win because we haven’t been doing that.”
In contrast, Warriors coach Dave Rennie offered up few excuses or reasons to be cheerful.
“We were just not accurate enough. We couldn’t turn any possession in to pressure and we weren’t good enough tonight,” said Rennie, who refused to read too much into what has been a painful week for his players.
“It’s a long season and we are really disappointed in the last couple of weeks. It’s not terminal, and it doesn’t define us, but you’ve got to be better.
“Even when we got down their end, the carries weren’t good enough and we didn’t get enough quicker ball, and didn’t get enough go forward.
“You’ve got to give credit, they defended well, but we didn’t make them work too hard for their points.”