Rico wrote:
If this season has taught us anything it's that we don't have sufficient strength and depth (maybe with the exception of the back row) and can't, therefore, compete effectively on multiple fronts.
We simply can't afford to have our best players knackered for key Pro14 games because they've played largely pointless games in Romania or Russia or wherever. And the Pro14 should *always* be our priority.
If our second XV can get us out of the Challenge Cup group stage, by all means put out full strength teams thereafter. Otherwise it should be used for developmental reasons, or for giving players game time to players returning from injury.
I think this is the right call. We do not currently have enough strength in depth to mount an effective challenge in both league and cup. As this season showed, trying to do both rather knackered our 1st XV and fielding weakened sides led to league defeats.
Edinburgh's sole goal for the season should be making the league playoffs and thus qualifying for the Champions Cup. Doing well in the diddy cup counts for little really, playing the bottom teams from the Premiership and Top 14, let alone weak Russian or Romanian sides.
That does not necessarily mean we should field a 2nd XV in the pool stages of the Cup, rather we should rotate the squad sensibly to rest some of the 1st XV and develop some of the more promising back-up players.
For instance, give McCallum a start but with Ceccarelli, Berghan or Nel on the bench as cover, or in another game, start Cherry but with Willemse or McInally riding shotgun - a little rotation each game so that 3 or 4 promising back-up players get a shot at making their mark. Easy enough to do with the forwards, there are a lot of promising young players in the pack. More problematic in the back division, where IMO we are short of quality 1st XV and back-up players alike and/or the training in skills and plays to make them a cohesive unit, but that is going to be a continuing problem this season whatever we compete in.