New Zealander Simon Hickey spearheads 'utterly transformed' Edinburgh

Richard Cockerill led Edinburgh to 20 wins from 29 matches in his first season as head coach

If you look at the betting for the Pro14, the experts have Leinster as understandable favourites to retain their title. Leinster were, and still are, an awesome force. Champions of the league, champions of Europe and in the case of a dozen of their Test players, Six Nations and Grand Slam champions to boot. The target on their back is so big that even Mr Magoo couldn't miss it.

Scarlets are considered second-favourites, which is odd given that they have lost Scotland captain John Barclay to Edinburgh, Pro14 player of the season Tadhg Beirne to Munster and brilliant Wales centre Scott Williams to Ospreys. Munster are third-favourites - with fly-half Joey Carbery and Beirne added to their mix, that's fair enough - and Glasgow are fourth, a show of faith in the post-Finn Russell era as Scotland's maverick pivot begins life in France with Racing 92.

Where are Edinburgh in the estimation of the odds layers? Behind those four clubs and also behind Ospreys, Ulster and Cardiff Blues. Eighth in line to lift the trophy at Celtic Park next year? It's an interesting assessment and one that might have a few Edinburgh fans sprinting for the bookies.

There was something odd in the air at their training base on Wednesday. Something you don't normally associate with Edinburgh at the beginning of a season - optimism. It's not pretend optimism like before, it's the real thing. Edinburgh won 15 games in the competition last time in Richard Cockerill's first season as head coach. Only Glasgow could match that total.

Had they shown more self-belief in Limerick in their play-off against Munster they might have gone to the semi-final. They didn't bring anything like their best stuff to Thomond Park and still only lost by four points.

Even though Cockerill's massive job of building Edinburgh's previously non-existent identity and culture was in its infancy they lost just three Pro14 games that you would have expected them to win - Benetton at home, Cheetahs away and Ulster at home - and they have improved their team and their depth in the meantime.

Cockerill says they still have a long way to go, but when you look through their playing roster you get a strong sense that anybody who reckons that this lot are eighth in the pecking order for the title may need to take a closer look at what's going on.

To Edinburgh via Auckland and Bordeaux

Simon Hickey, out of Auckland via Bordeaux Begles, is one of 13 new recruits. For the longest time Edinburgh have struggled to land a 10 who can direct the team. Cockerill thinks he's cracked it with Hickey.

The Kiwi is 24 years old. He was probably good enough to play international cricket, but he chose rugby. In 2014 that looked like a pretty wise choice. At the Junior World Cup in his homeland he captained a New Zealand team that included Damian McKenzie, Richie Mo'unga and Anton Lienert-Brown, who have all gone on to play for the All Blacks.

"We played Scotland in a group game in Pukekohe," says Hickey. "A very wet night and I went off the field after half an hour with an ankle sprain and that was my tournament done.

"I was captain because I'd been on the team the year before and I was a bit more experienced than the younger boys. Lewis Carmichael, Jamie Ritchie, Magnus Bradbury and Chris Dean were playing for Scotland that day and they're my team-mates now. You never know what's around the corner in this game."

Simon Hickey scored 98 league points for Bordeaux-Begles last season

Hickey's career path didn't go the same way as some of his illustrious pals in that under-20 side. In 2014 he made it into the Blues Super Rugby team. He was 19 and had Ma'a Nonu, Tony Woodcock, Charlie Faumuina and Jerome Kaino, 352 All Black caps and two World Cups between them, as team-mates. It didn't last. The Blues struggled and finished 10th of 15 teams.

He says now that the opportunity came too early for him. He says that if he knew then what he knows now then he'd make a better fist of it. Time moves on, though. He's not one for looking back. Instead of beating his head against a brick wall in Auckland he moved to France. Bordeaux gave him a week to make up his mind and he jumped.

"It was for eight months initially and then eight months became three years," recalls Hickey. "I was nervous. Auckland has always been home. I stayed at mum and dad's the whole time.

"I went from living in a full household to, in the beginning, living by myself and that was challenging. I got homesick a wee bit, but when you take yourself out of your comfort zone you learn things about yourself. I'm stoked [happy] that I made the decision to go there."

Hickey went to Bordeaux as a player who just wanted to play with ball in hand.

"Growing up in New Zealand, my natural instinct was to look for my running options and then set the outside backs away," he says. "In France, I came to appreciate the kicking side of the game and I think that's made me a more rounded player."

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Hickey spearheads 'utterly transformed' backline

The rise of the brilliant Matthieu Jalibert, the Bordeaux and France fly-half, meant that three years in France was enough for Hickey. Now he's part of an Edinburgh backline that has been utterly transformed under Cockerill.

Blair Kinghorn has improved immeasurably and looks a class act at full-back. Dougie Fife and Duhan van der Merwe are dangerous wings. In the midfield there's a new combination of Mark Bennett and Matt Scott, two men who have done terrific things and who will surely be hell-bent on getting themselves back in contention for more Scotland caps.

There's a new combination at half-back as well with Hickey (last season's first-choice Jaco van der Walt hasn't gone away either) and Henry Pyrgos who has been transplanted in Edinburgh from Glasgow. Pyrgos, like Bennett and Scott, has work to do to get himself into national boss Gregor Townsend's thoughts. Like Bennett and Scott, on his best days, he's plenty good enough to do it.

The pack of forwards have been strengthened by recruitment and by players returning from injury and having the benefit of a pre-season. There's a mountain of Test rugby to be played this season and Edinburgh's resources will be stretched like never before. They look ready for it, though. Or as ready as they can be. Cockerill has put together an impressive squad.

"From what I've seen so far, this is best group of forwards I've played behind," says Hickey. "I know the boys made big improvements last season and we all know that it's going to be more difficult this season. We'll have to be better. We want to have a bit more finesse in the way we attack and we have to front up every week.

"We're not setting ourselves a goal of winning the title. That's too far into the distance. We're saying that every single week we need to deliver our best stuff and we'll see where that takes us."

It'll take some folk to the betting shop to snap up a piece of the 28-1 that's available. Cockerill says Edinburgh remain a work in progress, but progressing they are. Big time.

Hickey is one of four debutants (asterisked) named for Edinburgh's Pro14 opener against Ospreys on Friday