Richard Cockerill: Edinburgh have 'a long way to go' despite upturn in fortunes
- Published
Richard Cockerill earned plenty of plaudits for his first season at Edinburgh, but is not satisfied
Head coach Richard Cockerill says nobody at Edinburgh is getting carried away by last season's improvement.
Cockerill led the capital side to the Pro14 play-offs for the first time, the European Challenge Cup last eight and a place in this season's Champions Cup.
He wants his team to match or better those feats in his second campaign, but concedes it will be a tall order.
"I've had a lot of people congratulating me over the summer for a good season," Cockerill said.
"But the reality is we've got a long way to go. We qualified for the Pro14 play-offs for the first time ever which is fantastic for us, but we were still fifth in the league in reality.
"We've got a lot to work on, a lot to improve on. We think we've got a slightly stronger squad that's a bit more balanced, but we've got to work harder now.
"Nobody is going to take us for granted, everybody knows what we're about. That's going to make things more difficult."
Edinburgh have strengthened their squad for the new campaign with the signings of Scotland centre Matt Scott, Kiwi fly-half Simon Hickey, Glasgow scrum-half Henry Pyrgos, Newcastle back Juan Pablo Socino and Scotland back-rowers John Barclay and Luke Hamilton.
Cockerill believes his squad has greater strength and depth, but is wary of raising expectations on what they can achieve in the short term, with their opening Pro14 fixture at Welsh outfit Ospreys next Friday, 31 August.
"This is a club that's never won anything so we've still got that to do," said the former Leicester and Toulon coach. "We're now competitive in the league and we've qualified by right for the first time ever for the Champions Cup.
Edinburgh beat rivals Glasgow twice at Murrayfield last season
"We want to get there [the play-offs] again because it's exciting. It's good fun. We think we can go deep into the play-offs.
"The reality is though is that we have to better than Leinster, European champions and Pro14 champions, Scarlets - semi-finalists in Europe and finalists in the Pro14 - and Ulster.
"All three sides spend significantly more money than we do and have a good, deep squad. The reality is we've got to be better than those three consistently.
"We want to be in the play-offs. We want to be back in Europe again, dining at the big boys' table. It's going to take a lot of hard work. To expect to be in the play-offs, I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves."
'Finish above Glasgow? We have to be realistic'
Edinburgh fans will no doubt be keen to finish above rivals Glasgow for the first time in eight years.
Cockerill would love nothing better, but is keen to emphasise the different stages the two Scottish professional sides are at in their development.
"It's taken Glasgow six or seven years to get to the point they're at; we're one year into that," he added. "I don't want to wait seven years, that's no excuse to be average this year, but we have to be realistic.
"Every time we play Glasgow we're going to try and beat them. To finish above them we'll have to be very good every week.
"That rivalry is not going away. We want to strive to be better than Glasgow. But we also want to be better than Leinster and Munster. How realistic that is, we'll see."