YOU have to read The Rucker for the big exclusives about Scottish rugby. Two weeks ago this column was first to reveal that former England hooker Richard Cockerill was under consideration for the post of head coach at Edinburgh.
And hey, presto, two days ago the former director of rugby at Leicester Tigers was named by the SRU as the new man in charge at Myreside or Murrayfield, depending on where Edinburgh are playing.
Capped 27 times , Cockerill had several excellent years coaching at Leicester, but the Tigers’ recent bad form – which included a thumping by Glasgow Warriors – saw him out of the door. If he can regather himself and put some oomph into Edinburgh, he might just be an inspired appointment, and when you consider that Edinburgh have never finished higher than eighth in the Guinness Pro12 table, he doesn’t really have to do too much to be a success.
Cockerill will arrive in June from Toulon where he is currently a consultant, and The Rucker is betting that Edinburgh’s players will never have had a pre-season training like the one they are going to get this summer.
The 46-year-old said after his appointment was announced: “I do want to bring through young Scottish players as I did at Leicester with the Youngs brothers, Dan Cole and several others.”
The likes of Blair Kinghorn and Lewis Carmichael should be pleased to read that.
The SRU now have a proven coach who is totally committed to his club, and giving him a two-year contract is a good idea – he will want to get success and quickly so as to get a contract extension.
The good news is that he is also coming from France where Cockerill has experienced life in the Top 14 before as he played for Clermont for two years between 2002 and 2004.
Will Greenwood, for one, believes both stints in France have helped Cockerill evolve as a coach and the Sky pundit is one of those few former players who actually talks some sense – Andy Nicol being another.
This being Scottish Rugby, Cockerill has already taken something of a ribbing on social media, with Bill Lothian, the erstwhile rugby correspondent of the Edinburgh Evening News being partly to blame. “Cockerill appointment at Edinburgh Rugby: Does that mean chickens coming home to roost?” he wrote on Facebook, and sure enough the puns poured in.
John Campbell wrote “No it’s a wake-up call,” while Donny McIntyre opined: “You have to get up early in the morning to catch him out” and “the SRU will clip his wings for sure” and “I hope he gives the players free range to express themselves.”
John Hope wrote: “Hope he isn’t a bad egg,” while John Evans said it all: “I’d heard they tried to get Henman first. No doubt his first signing will be Callum Chick from Falcons – as a wing forward. He may well be (egg) bound by certain claws(es) in his contract.”
All in good fun, of course, and hopefully we’ll be crowing as Edinburgh go cock-a-doodle-doo.
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