Richard Cockerill wants less of his nice Edinburgh former public schoolboys and more dig and devil from his side as they take on Glasgow in the 1872 Cup this week.
The head coach has welcomed former Warrior Mark Bennett, newly back from a 10-month injury break, to training and even if the Scotland international centre doesn’t make the starting team on Saturday night at BT Murrayfield his attitude and input have had an impact already.
“Clearly he is motivated to pull on an Edinburgh shirt for the first time,” said Cockerill. “He is very keen to play against his old team.
“He is one of our marquee players, he has played for Scotland and sevens for Great Britain. He has a good edge about him, he’s not a polite Edinburgh public schoolboy so that is a good start.
“He has an edge about his game and is very forthright in his opinion on how things should be done. He contributes well to team meetings, he will be very good for us on and off the field.”
Cockerill agreed that there was sometimes a “soft underbelly” with the Edinburgh side because they feature a number of players who came out of the local private schools.
“100 per cent yes,” he said. “It is a nice place to be brought up. My son is now an Edinburgh educated public schoolboy and he is a pain, a bit too nice so I know all about it.
“It is good to get a bit of devil in the team. Mark brings that, and I have hardened it up a bit but there are times that it still shows occasionally.
“We are getting a good balance of those guys in the starting team and that brings a bit of edge to us, and a bit of fear to opponents which is a good thing.”
Edinburgh are on a decent run at the moment but Cockerill admits it’s nothing compared to what their city rivals have done.
“Nobody has beaten them in the PRO14 yet, and while they have had a tough time in Europe but that is a different level to anything we have been involved in,” he said.
“Losing to Leinster, Exeter and Montpellier back to back, there is no disgrace in that and they were all tight games. We are not even in the main competition.
“Historically, and this season, they have proved they are a better team than us. Across the board, individually they have better players than us. The sum of our parts has to be very united, and we have to make sure that we get things right.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t win, because I’m pretty damn sure that if we get our game together, we’re a good enough side to beat them. I’m also very sure that if they get their game together and we don’t, they are more than capable of putting us to the sword.”
Also, with a crowd in excess of 20,000 expected, Cockerill wants the public to see how far his Edinburgh side have come.
“It’s a big day for us as a club, we hope to get a bumper crowd, and I’m hoping Edinburgh Rugby take another step forward in what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“When I arrived, I wanted to build a team that people wanted to come and support. Now actually I think we’re getting to a place where people should come and support us, because we’re doing some good things and we’re playing a good brand of rugby.
“So I’d like to think that people will make the effort to come and watch, and support their city. Let’s have a proper rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow: it’s a healthy thing.”
Edinburgh will be without Scotland prop Darryl Marfo, who has a back problem, and the club still have just one fit stand-off in newcomer Jaco van der Walt, but will otherwise have a full complement to pick from.
