Edinburgh v Ulster: How Richard Cockerill has reinvented capital side

Cockerill has taken Edinburgh from perennial strugglers to title contenders

If Richard Cockerill wasn't aware of the scale of the job he had taken on at Edinburgh, then a bizarre defeat by Benetton in his third match in charge made it abundantly clear.

After going 14-0 up at Myreside, his side contrived to lose 20-17 to become the Italian side's first scalp outside of their homeland in 41 attempts.

Benetton finished with 13 men, and though Edinburgh were camped on their line for an age, they could not convert.

A clearly startled Cockerill accused his players of "chucking it around like it's a Sunday afternoon game" and declared "the honeymoon is clearly over".

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Three years on, his Edinburgh side are strong favourites to beat Ulster in Saturday's Pro14 semi-final.

Under the Englishman's stewardship, the club have been on a journey from also-rans - they finished 10th, eighth, eighth, ninth and ninth in the five seasons before his arrival - to title contenders. So how have they managed it?

Changing the culture

The first building block was to rid Edinburgh of the culture of mediocrity. The narrative has always been that Scottish rugby was slow to embrace professionalism, and though Gregor Townsend and his team had transformed standards at Glasgow, their rivals along the M8 were behind the curve.

A month after that loss to Benetton, Magnus Bradbury hurt himself on a night out, which gave Cockerill a problem, but also an opportunity to reinforce his message publicly.

In stripping Bradbury of the captaincy, he told the media: "A lot of people have said to me that the Edinburgh environment is a little bit loose. I don't want that to affect what happens on the field. People have to be accountable for what they do and take responsibility. Simple as that."

Stories of Cockerill castigating players in training and analysis sessions - and telling Grant Gilchrist he didn't think he was worthy of the hype - served to illustrate the uncompromising standards. "We train harder than the games," prop Simon Berghan once said.

Former Scotland sevens captain Colin Gregor has followed the club over the past decade as a player and then analyst for BBC Scotland, and says the culture shock was exactly what was needed.

"You speak to players - they were crying out for someone to take control over what they were doing off the field," he said.

"It was pretty extreme at the beginning. Everyone had to wear exactly the right kit, there was no music in the gym until they won a game. But it set the tone, and that was the key thing."

It quickly became clear that players were subscribing to Cockerill's methods, which helped him to title success at Leicester Tigers.

An indication of their improvement came against Glasgow in the first derby of the season. Despite Berghan's fourth-minute red card, Edinburgh defended as if their lives depended on it, and came from 11-3 down to clinch a last-minute 18-17 win. They had steeliness and character in spades.

They went on to win eight of their last 10 matches to reach the Pro14 quarter-finals, where they came up short in a narrow defeat by Munster. Cockerill declared Edinburgh had now "earned the respect of the league". Something was stirring.

Remodelling the squad

The first campaign had been a case of establishing the basics. The environment had been created and the team's physical edge, set-piece solidity, and kicking game made them far harder to beat.

John Barclay, Simon Hickey, Matt Scott, Pierre Schoeman, and Henry Pyrgos were all added for 2018-19, but injuries exposed a lack of depth and a bluntness in attack led to unexpected defeats.

During the autumn Tests, Edinburgh were thumped by Zebre and lost to Dragons; during the Six Nations they were beaten by Southern Kings, Cardiff Blues (when 17 points up) and Benetton. They finished fifth in their conference, losing 11 of their 21 games.

It was in stark contrast to their performances in the Champions Cup, where they bullied Toulon and Montpellier to reach the quarter-finals. The displays of Bill Mata, Hamish Watson, Darcy Graham and others during that run demonstrated the progress of the first season had not been stymied.

"He's backed players and given them a chance," Gregor says of Cockerill's work with individuals. "He's given them an opportunity to build confidence.

"The resilience and mindset he's developed means that if someone plays badly or makes an error in a game, it's not career-defining. People can come back, learn from it and get stronger."

The finishing touch

With his internationals set to miss the first third of the 2019-20 season because of the World Cup, Cockerill recruited nine players, including Nic Groom, Eroni Sau and Nick Haining, while fit-again centre pairing Scott and Mark Bennett added new attacking verve.

They lost just twice during the World Cup - one of which was to the seemingly unbeatable Leinster - and won every match during the Six Nations. It showed another lesson had been learned.

"They have evolved," Gregor says. "So while there are large periods of games where they don't do a massive amount, they also don't give away anything.

"Their game is still based very much on set-piece, on physicality and territory. But once they're winning the territorial battle, or on top physically, they do have real quality that leads to some class tries."

The next step

While the improvements are clear to see, there remains a question around this Edinburgh side. They are yet to win a knockout match on Cockerill's watch.

When the pressure is turned up and the margin for error is miniscule, they have come up short. They fluffed their lines against Cardiff Blues in the Challenge Cup in 2018, and lost to Munster in the Pro14 and Champions Cup when both games were within reach heading into the closing stages.

"Generally you have to go through those moments to come out the other side," Cockerill told the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast.

"I would like to think we are at a point where our players have enough experience, belief and quality to be able to step up on Saturday [against Ulster] and put their best game on the field and win."

Cockerill's analysis certainly reflects the experience of Glasgow Warriors, who lost semi-finals and a final before finally winning the Pro12 in 2015.

"They are building a squad that can compete at the top level for a number of years, and potentially in more than one competition as well," says Gregor. "But they haven't actually won anything yet."

Edinburgh are favourites to topple Ulster on Saturday, something Cockerill has been keen to play down. But the head coach knows the incredible opportunity before them to reach a major final, and with it the chance to remind everyone of their remarkable transformation.