EDINBURGH took a while to get their game going against Glasgow – the best part of an hour, in fact – but they got there in the end, leaving head coach Richard Cockerill satisfied with the patience and composure which saw them win by 15 points and finally guarantee a PRO14 semi-final.
“It was a really good win,” Cockerill said. “I’m happy to get the result and we can play a lot better. I’m sure Glasgow will feel the same.
“There is lots to review and get better at, but we’re very happy to be in a semi-final. We’ve worked hard at the breakdown knowing that it’s going to be important and we’ve got some guys who do it very, very well.
“Both sides wanted to play. We played more than I’d have liked us to at times, but it’s a good result. We knew we’d have to play for 80 minutes. We didn’t panic too much at half time; we’d let them into our half too easily two times and they’d scored.”
Duhan van der Merwe was one Edinburgh player who played more than Cockerill would have liked, if “playing more” means being too indirect and not going for the jugular. But the South African winger certainly earned his reward when he did take the more direct route to the Glasgow line, providing an assist for a Nic Groom try that turned the tide in Edinburgh’s favour.
“Duhan is very quick and is a great finisher,” Cockerill added. “I’m not so keen on him running sideways across the pitch and trying to find a gap like he’s playing under-12s, I much prefer him to run straight and hard. We’ve got work to do on the counter-attack – I thought we did that poorly tonight. I don’t think you’ll see Bill Mata drop the ball more than he did this evening.
“We did some really good things and some really poor things. But what I’m really happy with is the character of the team to stay in the battle and keep working. There was some good impact off the bench. We have to go and review and get better for next week.”
Debutant lock Andrew Davidson, formerly of Glasgow, only lasted half-an- hour before going off injured. He could come into the reckoning for Friday’s return match, although Cockerill said his selection could depend on whether there was anything at stake in the game.
“Davidson got a whack on his neck and shoulder. With head injuries it’s important we look at him, so it was more of a precaution than a problem,” Cockerill said. “I thought Jamie Hodgson did well and hopefully he’ll come through to play next week.
“We’ve still only played one game in five months so we need to get our guys match fit to play knock-out rugby. The fixture is also important and we want to pay respect to it. It means a lot to us to beat Glasgow, our local rivals, so we’ll put a team out that we think can win. If we don’t need to win to make a home semi, we might look after some boys.”
Having vowed his team would target Warriors full-back Huw Jones, Cockerill praised the Scotland international for his performance, before adding a few qualified criticisms of his own side for good measure.
“Huw Jones is a good player, a good footballer. We tried to isolate him but he caught every ball we kicked to him and he posed some threats in attack.
“It was messy. We didn’t control the game as well as we would have liked.
“We got ourselves stuck in our own half and as you saw with both teams, if you don’t exit your half you get punished.”
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