Cockerill: Edinburgh miles better but still work to do

Richard Cockerill admitted he has taken Edinburgh Rugby a long way in his three years in charge.

But as the team prepares to return to action against Glasgow Warriors, the head coach said he will not be happy until he has turned the capital club into regularly competing for silverware.

Edinburgh need just a point to confirm a Pro 14 semi-final place, and back-to-back wins over the Scottish rivals is likely to see them earn the right to stage the last four clash at home.

Cockerill said: “We are miles better than when we started this three years ago.

“How we operate, the players we have, the amount of internationals we have in the squad.

“From the guys who have come through the academy to the players who have come from abroad – we have a real group who believe in what we are doing.

“We all buy in to what Edinburgh is about.

“We are now so much closer to being a successful squad than we were – but we’ve got to keep building that.”

Regardless of the progress made under the Englishman, Cockerill remained wary of any suggestion that Edinburgh are now favourites for the matches against Warriors – with the historic 1872 Cup also on the line on Saturday.

Asked why he wanted to hang on to the ‘underdog’ status, Cockerill said: “We don’t have a huge history of success and the way I see it is that we’ve done well for us.

“We haven’t won any trophies and we haven’t got any historic silverware in the cabinet.

“So we have to keep our feet on the ground and keep building.

“Glasgow have won the competition and been in finals and semi-finals so they’ve got that bit of pedigree that we don’t have.”