Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill, as we’ve discovered multiple times during his 14-month tenure with the club, is a canny and clever operator and not just with what happens on the field.
So even when he appears to go full barrel with outspoken and controversial comments as he did in the wake of his team’s 17-10 victory over Connacht on Friday, there’s an underlying narrative.
No doubt Cockerill was aggrieved, perhaps justifiably, at the lop-sided penalty count – officially, an incredible 15-4 – not resulting in more than the one yellow card issued, to Connacht skipper Jarrad Butler.
Fresh from a feeling of injustice at a last-gasp penalty for Ulster the previous week denying Edinburgh a second successive win at the Kingspan Stadium, Cockerill claimed the standards of officiating “threaten the credibility, 100%” of the Guinness PRO14.
“We have to see improvements, because in the last two weeks there has been game changing moments (the officials) are getting wrong. We can’t even get the pictures on the big screen to look at the first yellow card. It has to get better, doesn’t it?”
Yes it does, and it’s noticeable since the PRO14 changed broadcaster that clear pictures of marginal decisions for the TMOs have been in somewhat shorter supply.
But this is the same Cockerill who avowed after Ulster that whatever the ref’s decisions, Edinburgh had to be “better than that”. And his comments on Friday had the benefit of overshadowing that his team weren’t good enough on the night to make officiating errors irrelevant.
10 of those 15 penalties against Connacht, and the yellow card, came in the first half alone, yet Edinburgh were just 10-0 to the good. The Irishmen had one set of phases inside the home 22 during that half, ended by a Hamish Watson steal on the ground, and the rest was all in Connacht’s territory.
At least three of the penalties were a guaranteed three points. Edinburgh kicked five to the corner, scrummaged a couple more, and Henry Pyrgos had one quick tap.
Even if late replacement Jaco van der Walt is not as ultra-reliable as the sick Simon Hickey off the tee, you’d think he’d kicked at least three of them and 19-0 at the break would have been the foundation Edinburgh could have built toward a bonus point.
Yes, Connacht made the mauls a mess, sometimes illegally, but Edinburgh were far from as slick as they can be, and that was when they got possession – a series of timing issues at the lineout caused a number of routine throws to be lost.
Edinburgh had enough ball for a 30-point advantage before Connacht revived themselves in the final quarter, whatever the ref and his assistants did.
Cockerill had a point, but he was also being canny. He skilfully deflected attention from his team’s disappointing performance and made it about him, and the refs.
It’s what the best coaches do. They also make their teams better, and we can be reasonably assured Cockerill will do that too.
