Richard Cockerill: Edinburgh coach looks forward to key games during Six Nations
- Published
Edinburgh scored nine tries against Southern Kings at Murrayfield
Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill is looking forward to "three pivotal matches" in February after going top of Conference B in the Pro14.
Southern Kings were hammered 61-13 at Murrayfield on Saturday evening as Edinburgh moved three points clear.
Next month brings a trip to Scarlets and home games with Connacht and Cardiff Blues.
"We just need to keep working hard and collecting as many points as we can," Cockerill told BBC Scotland.
"It cements us in the top three and we have three huge games during the Six Nations with the teams around us in our conference.
"We want to be a play-off team and we've given ourselves a glimmer of that but there's a long way to go. Those three games are going to be pivotal.
"To this point, the season is going all right, but it's a cruel game and you just need to make sure you get next week right.
"We won't get carried away. You get nothing for being top after round 10. I want to be top after round 21."
Edinburgh scored nine tries in the demolition of Southern Kings, who lost prop Pieter Scholtz to a first-half red card and were down to 12 men for the last four scores of a one-sided contest.
Cockerill was frustrated to see several chances to make the margin of victory even more emphatic spurned but was anticipating a dip in intensity after a festive double-header with Glasgow.
"We knew it would be hard to raise the levels, physically and emotionally, after the last couple of weeks," he said.
"We'll take the win. Every week can't be your biggest game. It was about getting maximum points. Job done, but it's one to delete from the computer.
"When we play sides that we should potentially beat, we need to be more clinical and ruthless. We were at points but early on we needed to be more accurate.
"But we made 11 changes and that's a step forward. We would have been worried about doing that last season."
'It's hard to compete on two fronts'
Next up for Edinburgh is a trip to Bordeaux in the European Challenge Cup before the group concludes at home to Agen.
"They are the form team in France and I know from personal experience that it's the hardest league to play well in week-in, week-out; it's so physical and attritional," said Cockerill, who played for Clermont Auvergne and coached at Toulon.
"There is real quality in that Bordeaux squad. We'll make changes again but we'll send a strong team.
"It's hard to compete on two fronts and we need to make sure we manage the squad. There's been a World Cup, we have a big Six Nations coming up and a summer tour. I'll look after some of our Test guys and make sure others get opportunities."