Edinburgh unaffected by postponed derby

David Skippers
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Edinburgh Rugby's head coach Richard Cockerill before the game

The postponement of Edinburgh’s first festive derby against Glasgow has posed no problems for the Scottish capital club’s head coach Richard Cockerill.

A coronavirus outbreak at the Warriors forced Sunday’s Scotstoun clash to be called off but the teams are set to meet at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Normal week’s training

Cockerill said: “We had four days off and came back in on Monday to have a normal week’s training.

“It’s not really affected us apart from the boys have had a little bit more time to spend with their families over Christmas.

“We just take advice from the doctors at the SRU and everyone is doing their testing. We had our results back from Monday’s testing and they were all negative and I am sure Glasgow are the same.

“We just prepare and if they let us play, we play.”

Edinburgh and Glasgow have both struggled in the PRO14 this season after losing a large number of players to the extended international break.

But Edinburgh showed in a narrow defeat against La Rochelle and impressive away win over Sale in the Champions Cup that they are getting back on track.

“We had a couple of decent performances and one decent win in Europe and we hope to take that into Saturday’s game,” Cockerill said.

“We are not down in the dumps, we have been playing some half-decent rugby, we just haven’t been good enough to finish games off. We managed to do it against Sale and we are going to need to do it in the next few weeks.

“We are optimistic about how we are trying to play but obviously we have had a lot of guys missing and a lot of guys injured, but in four weeks’ time they are all going to go away again for two months.

“It’s just the nature of the season, it’s been very disrupted, and we are just going to take every game as it comes and get on with it.

“We are privileged that we are allowed to come to work and do what we do. I am looking forward to the game at the weekend, two good sides, both need the points, both under a little bit of pressure to get a result, so that’s sport for you.

“There is a little bit of edginess about the group, and a little bit of niggle at training, so we are hoping we can transfer that energy and enthusiasm and passion for the fixture into the game on Saturday.”

 

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