IT may not be considered overly important by their coach, but Edinburgh’s players could not be more motivated to reclaim the 1872 Challenge Cup at Scotstoun this afternoon.
Coach Richard Cockerill declared that winning the trophy is a secondary consideration to accruing the league points that would help close the gap on Ulster in Edinburgh’s bid to claim a Pro14 top three finish.
However, scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne revealed the players have taught their English coach a thing or two about the fixture. “This week he’s had a bit of an understanding, a bit of a taste, of what it means to us,” he said. “There’s been a few niggles in training, there’s been a wee bit of intensity.
“We’re always underdogs in these games, year after year. We just need to keep proving things. Last year we beat Glasgow away, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
They have now beaten their rivals so often – five times in the last six meetings – that they are entitled to believe the balance of power is shifting, or at least that they have worked out how to beat opponents they know better than any other with many members of both squads regularly working together in the Scotland camp.
Hidalgo-Clyne added: “We say it every year, it seems like we want it more and obviously the circumstances at the weekend made it tough for us to play the brand of rugby that we wanted to – but we played the rugby we needed to, to win that game.
“So hopefully coming this week we’ll have 15 men on the park so we can actually show what we can do and score a few tries.
“Everyone knows that with 14 men that could have gone completely the other way and I think we managed it well.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here