Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby doedin on Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:33 pm

All this optimism is making me a bit worried and goes against the grain!

How many years have we had to suffer the usual platitudes, promises that have been broken within a couple of weeks and the parade of a bunch of dodgy summer signings that most failed to deliver? Between the Irish Muppet and Solomons the last 4-5 pre seasons have got less and less positive and any positive noises last year only lasted 4-5 games into the season before, thankfully, Solly got his jotters!

However I have to say that the noises coming out of the pre season camp and the signings and re-signings we have made have almost made me feel like we might have a good season coming up! For once we have made a serious attempt to rectify the major problems we have in the balance of the squad i.e. at centre and in the back 3 - Fruean and Bennet are top class signings and will hopefully bring some experience and go forward and will hopefully help the likes of Dean develop into the 12 he could be. Our new signings on the wing bring some pace and size options we have needed. The youngsters brought in look the real deal and with the likes of Kinghorn, Weir, SHC and Bryce hopefully regaining their mojo we might have some threat in the backs!

I am also very hopeful that we might see our pack start to show their true potential and with the likes of Dickinson, Nel, Sutherland coming back fit plus Del now a Lion and a fitter Berghan we look strong in front row. Ford looks like he has had shackles removed and should have a storming season. We should see GC back to full speed, Bresler back to fitness and Toolis being recognised as international class having a stormer. Richie and Bradbury are a year older, bigger and stronger and with Watson, Hardie, CdP et al we look strong.

However the thing that makes me most optimistic is the coaching team. I dont think Cockerill will stand for anything less than 100% and will challenge the cosy atmosphere in Murrayfield. He will not stand for the 40mins performances we saw last season. If he gets these guys believing in themselves and playing to their full potential we might see a top 6/7 performance. Sh1t I need to calm down with a stiff G&T!
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby Wottie on Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:48 pm

doedin wrote:All this optimism is making me a bit worried and goes against the grain!

How many years have we had to suffer the usual platitudes, promises that have been broken within a couple of weeks and the parade of a bunch of dodgy summer signings that most failed to deliver? Between the Irish Muppet and Solomons the last 4-5 pre seasons have got less and less positive and any positive noises last year only lasted 4-5 games into the season before, thankfully, Solly got his jotters!

However I have to say that the noises coming out of the pre season camp and the signings and re-signings we have made have almost made me feel like we might have a good season coming up! For once we have made a serious attempt to rectify the major problems we have in the balance of the squad i.e. at centre and in the back 3 - Fruean and Bennet are top class signings and will hopefully bring some experience and go forward and will hopefully help the likes of Dean develop into the 12 he could be. Our new signings on the wing bring some pace and size options we have needed. The youngsters brought in look the real deal and with the likes of Kinghorn, Weir, SHC and Bryce hopefully regaining their mojo we might have some threat in the backs!

I am also very hopeful that we might see our pack start to show their true potential and with the likes of Dickinson, Nel, Sutherland coming back fit plus Del now a Lion and a fitter Berghan we look strong in front row. Ford looks like he has had shackles removed and should have a storming season. We should see GC back to full speed, Bresler back to fitness and Toolis being recognised as international class having a stormer. Richie and Bradbury are a year older, bigger and stronger and with Watson, Hardie, CdP et al we look strong.

However the thing that makes me most optimistic is the coaching team. I dont think Cockerill will stand for anything less than 100% and will challenge the cosy atmosphere in Murrayfield. He will not stand for the 40mins performances we saw last season. If he gets these guys believing in themselves and playing to their full potential we might see a top 6/7 performance. Sh1t I need to calm down with a stiff G&T!


What's your address Doedin? You have me gravely concerned and I'm sending for an ambulance!
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby doedin on Mon Jul 17, 2017 10:43 pm

No need, on second G&T, mothers ruin doing the necessary! Optimism receding, honestly don't know what got into me there.

Now that we have a decent coaching team and squad in place and a new semi- permanent home ground sorted out what could possibly go wrong? All we need to ruin it is some poorly thought through reorganising of the league structure involving teams from thousands of miles away, oh wait a minute ...
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby New Gunner on Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:04 pm

In Callum McRae's video piece on the ER website, particularly liked the reference to 'mental conditioning'. Seems to have been a big missing piece of the jigsaw in recent years...
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby biffer on Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:43 pm

In one of RC's interviews he talked about three years. Any confirmation that's the length of the contract?

In all honesty I don't think he's a man who would take on a project and then leave it halfway through. I think he will be here for five or six years minimum.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby Crichton Gunner on Sun Jul 23, 2017 9:50 pm

Think it was announced as a 2 year contract, but might be wrong on this. Some encouraging noises around the club, but we've heard this sort of guff before only to be left very disappointed. Obvious point I know, but all that matters is what happens on the pitch, not the newspaper-filling flannel you get at this time of year.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby Friday Knight Lights on Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:25 pm

Crichton Gunner wrote:Think it was announced as a 2 year contract, but might be wrong on this. Some encouraging noises around the club, but we've heard this sort of guff before only to be left very disappointed. Obvious point I know, but all that matters is what happens on the pitch, not the newspaper-filling flannel you get at this time of year.


It was officially announced as a two year but I believe Rennie is two years with an option for a third so it is possible Cockerill has the same deal. Makes sense as post 2019 RWC you'd imagine a few coaching changes internationally and therefore in the club game too.

I have a feeling he'll stick around as it seems he is stripping the club to it's bare bones and rebuilding from scratch, very rare you get the chance to do this. I also doubt Dodson wants immediate results either just good incremental improvements. Although wouldn't be surprising if they're planning for one of the assistants to succeed him when his contract has ran either.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby BigD163 on Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:09 am

Friday Knight Lights wrote:
Crichton Gunner wrote:Think it was announced as a 2 year contract, but might be wrong on this. Some encouraging noises around the club, but we've heard this sort of guff before only to be left very disappointed. Obvious point I know, but all that matters is what happens on the pitch, not the newspaper-filling flannel you get at this time of year.


It was officially announced as a two year but I believe Rennie is two years with an option for a third so it is possible Cockerill has the same deal. Makes sense as post 2019 RWC you'd imagine a few coaching changes internationally and therefore in the club game too.

It makes sense for international coaches but it could be an issue here. Obviously a 2 year deal protects either party if it goes wrong but the WC period is a very turbulent time for player movement and lack of internationals around the club during pre season. Assuming, as we all hope RC does a good job, him leaving in May/June 2019 would be a big set back unless the SRU are primed with a good replacement.

Realistically it would not be a surprise if there are 10+ Edinburgh players (as it stands not allowing for future movement) in the world cup squad so that is a lot of 1st XV away and potentially a new coach trying to implement new systems with a heavily depleted squad.

If next season goes well we should be looking to extend RCs deal next summer as a priority IMO.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby New Gunner on Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:16 pm

From the BBC Sport Scotland website (below). Liking RC's approach - humble, focussed, determined. Wants us to do our talking through performance and results.

Pro14: New head coach Richard Cockerill wants Edinburgh to earn respect
26 minutes ago From the sectionScottish Rugby
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Simon Berghan of Edinburgh
Edinburgh have finished ninth in the Pro12 in the last two seasons
New Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill is not setting his side any targets other than earning the respect of their rivals during the Pro14 season.

Edinburgh have finished ninth for the past two years in the Pro12.

And Cockerill says getting the club challenging for honours will be a long term project.

"I'm not going to promise anything, I'd like us to go out and produce, and lets talk about it in hindsight," he said.

"Be consistent every week, and create a culture and environment that people want to be part of. We've not finished out of the bottom four since the Pro12 was started so we need to understand where we're at, we know where we'd like to go, but we need a better process, we need to train harder, work harder, and lets see where we get to."

The Englishman has a two-year contract with Edinburgh, but says he is already looking beyond that and wants Edinburgh to move out of the shadows of Glasgow Warriors.

Richard Cockerill
Cockerill believes the Edinburgh squad is better than their recent performances suggests
"There's a lot of things to solve," said Cockerill. "One of those is culture and identity, getting the players to believe, not always being the younger brother of the two pro teams.

"Nothing gets fixed in two months, and we probably won't see the fruits of it for another 12 months of so."

After assessing the squad, the 46-year-old believes he has a strong group of players to work with.

He said: "There's a lot of international players. Scotland have clearly done very well in the last season.

"(There is) a lot of good, young Scottish players that need to come through. There's a lot of potential in the squad, but clearly it's not come to fruition in the last few years and my job is to get the potential out of this squad.

"The squad is good enough to be better than where it is."
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby Friday Knight Lights on Wed Aug 09, 2017 8:54 pm

Good interviews:

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-uni ... -1-4526037

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGx63nNXkAEufsL.jpg

Interesting he says Duncan Weir isn't as good as Russell, I mean of course he isn't but weird thing to say about your own player.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby gone south on Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:59 am

I see he (Rob Robertson) believed the official fixture list saying that the final game of the season was to be at Scotstoun. Great journo!
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby dolf_lundgren on Thu Aug 10, 2017 11:07 am

I was reading the Scotsman article thinking about Matt Williams and I see under it someone has mentioned that. I know there are issues at Edinburgh but you have to be careful not to run down the players too much. It sounded a bit Williamsesque in saying it will take a long time to sort, the players don't understand what it is to win etc, if he had changed culture for skill set then it could have been Williams talking.

I don't think Cockers is as prone to bullshit as Williams but it is a concern when a coach comes in and immediately talks things down.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby The Feral Goat on Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:13 pm

Williams always came across like he was saying the players just weren’t good enough, for me Cockerill is saying it is more the environment that is poor, keeps coming back to the feeling that we have been massively unprofessional in our setup and approach since Robinson left.

Not sure Cockerill has said that much different to what we have been saying on here

“Last game of the season I was hoping we don’t get beaten by 40 ,” said Cockerill, “and we go and win! They’ve got it in them haven’t they. So how do we cultivate that every week?

Glasgow match – he is correct why were we not turning up and performing every week.

“People keep saying that we should be a top-six team, well the reality is that we’ve never finished above eighth so why the hell should we be sixth. So, we’ve got to actually realise where we are at first before we start to actually improve – because otherwise we are just in denial

Top 6 – I am guilty of it thinking we should be aiming for top 3 in the conference this season, past performance suggests we should finish above Treviso and Dragons with the Kings an unknown so why are suddenly better than Cardiff and an Ulster or Scarlets, as yet there is little evidence to suggest we except the likes of the odd wins v Glasgow or Ulster or Quins

Also says

I think there is a good core of players there. I need to create an environment where they are hard working and will put their bodies on the line every week to get better.

Thought the bit about training on a Sunday for example reinforces the previous amateur setup, I never thought the team would have every Sunday off I assumed with all the S&C etc that every week would be geared towards game day but I guess this was not the case.

In a similar vein I recall there were comments on here about how we warmed up pre-match last season will be interesting see if there is a significant change this season to the intensity and structure.

I still like what I hear from Cockerill, there may be an element of managing expectation and playing down chances but I am looking forward to the season starting in anger and seeing what changes he has made.
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby dolf_lundgren on Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:42 pm

I agree, its not as bad as Williams, he is still saying we are underdogs basically, the quote about hoping to keep the score at Scottoun under 40 for example.

I don't want my expectations managed, I want to be told we will win the league, then I want him to prove it. If not he can LawrenceBryce off!
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Re: Richard Cockerill confirmed as HC

Postby The Feral Goat on Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:45 pm

I don't want my expectations managed, I want to be told we will win the league, then I want him to prove it. If not he can LawrenceBryce off!


:) Fair enough, you should seek him out after the match next week and tell him so.

I want him to be saying the same and all being well next season or the season after he may well be, however I think that is unrealistic for this coming season, although who knows we could make a right Connacht of things and surprise a few folk.
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