THE LAST EIGHT IS GREAT BUT SCOTS HAVE TO TRY AND COME TO THE FOUR

I’M really gutted that we’ve not come out of these quarterfinals with the two victories that everyone in Scottish rugby wanted. Going into them, I think we all felt that there was a good chance of at least one team making it into the last four. It’s such a pity that it wasn’t to be. Edinburgh were beaten by a Munster team who just do what they’ve done for so long, winning when it mattered. And Glasgow? Well, Saracens were just the big prize fighter beating up on the little kid — not very pleasant to watch.

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s fantastic that both of our Scottish teams have reached Champions Cup quarter-finals this year. The really encouraging thing for me is that I know, with absolute certainty, that Richard Cockerill will have been absolutely fuming to have lost to Munster. And that’s brilliant. We need that attitude. Edinburgh absolutely should have won that game. With Munster having a player yellowcarded, a long disruption for an HIA, Joey Carbery going off, there were definite opportunities. Edinburgh should be in the semi-finals.

That was really a missed opportunity and, for me, they just didn’t have enough big performances from the big players who can influence a game.

The back row of John Barclay, Hamish Watson and Bill Mata just didn’t stamp their authority on the game in the way we’d have hoped.

They didn’t provide that defining moment, the big tackle, the huge turnover, the big offload. They weren’t part of something that raised the collective level.

Now, you can always say that CJ Stander, Connor Murray and Carbery didn’t do much, so that Edinburgh back row did good defensive work. But it wasn’t enough.

Munster played as they have for the past 15 years in European rugby. They found a way to win a tight, gritty, horrible game.

We’ll all ask questions of Edinburgh in hindsight. Should they have taken points on the board instead of kicking to the corner with their first three penalties?

But the bottom line is they were 13-10 up and in control, didn’t lose that

second try until the last 10

minutes. If you think of the pool they were in, alongside Montpellier, Toulon and Newcastle, I never thought they would come out of that group.

So Cockerill deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done, turning Edinburgh from a side who produce something special every few years, to a team who have set a high level of performance.

I think we’ve seen players develop over the course of this year. Darcy Graham was great again yesterday, Chris Deans has stepped up.

But I come back to what I said about key players, including guys who chased well — but didn’t really challenge for the ball.

If you’re going to face a box-kick team, you need 50 per cent of those balls to be coming back on your side. Edinburgh didn’t really get any balls back yesterday.

Damien Holland and Duhan van der Merle chased everything — but they didn’t really compete.

And Graham is more of a counterattacking full-back, rather than someone who is going to challenge for those balls in the manner of, for instance, Blair Kinghorn.

I think you need to learn how to win games at this level.

There were a few examples of that at Murrayfield yesterday afternoon, Edinburgh trying to move the ball wide when they might just have driven up the middle and picked up another penalty, put three more points on the board.

Cockerill, if he stays for the next two or three years, will build a team who do these things.

Players who don’t execute the right choices at the right time, they won’t be there.

If Edinburgh will feel they should have won, you can’t say the same about Glasgow.

It’s the beauty of pro sport, isn’t it. When Ali Price scores a fantastic try after 90 seconds, you think: ‘Here we go.’

But Saracens just steamrollered them. They are such a strong team and, like Munster, they know how to play at this level.

I remember playing against them late in my career, just as Owen Farrell was coming through, and we knocked them out in the quarter-finals, I think.

They had to go through losing quarter-finals, losing semi-finals, to get to where they are now.

So they look very impressive. And, when your defence is as porous as Glasgow’s was in London, that’s only going to end one way.

This was a missed opportunity for both of our teams. You need to learn how to win games at this level