Richard Cockerill: Head coach leaves Edinburgh after four years in charge

Richard Cockerill was contracted with Edinburgh until the summer of 2023

Richard Cockerill has left his role as Edinburgh head coach "by mutual consent to allow him to pursue other opportunities", the Pro14 club has announced.

The 50-year-old former England player departs after four years in charge.

Assistant coach Calum MacRae and head of strength and conditioning Nick Lumley will oversee the start of the club's pre-season programme.

"It has been a rewarding four seasons for the club," said Cockerill.

After a long association with Leicester and a brief stint at Toulon in France, he arrived at Murrayfield in the summer of 2017 and was contracted until the summer of 2023 after signing a two-year extension in 2020.

In a disrupted 2019-20 campaign, Cockerill led Edinburgh to a first home semi-final in the Pro14.

The club reached the play-offs in his first year as well as the Champions Cup quarter-finals in 2018-19.

However, Edinburgh lost 10 of their 16 league matches last season and managed just one win from five outings in the Rainbow Cup.

Edinburgh Rugby managing director Douglas Struth said: "I would like to thank Richard for all his hard work and commitment. We wish him all the very best in his next challenge."

'A human coaching dynamo' - analysis

BBC Scotland's Tom English

Edinburgh fans will need no reminding of what life was like pre-Richard Cockerill. To call it dismal wouldn't even scratch the surface.

Cockerill was a human coaching dynamo, a guy who obliterated the lazy attitudes in the camp and brought a harder edge. He improved a huge amount of players on his watch, even if they became a nearly team on all fronts. They were good, but on the biggest days, not quite good enough. Then Covid hit and things started to go badly wrong.

The coach had to get by without his international players (all locked away in Gregor Townsend's Test bubble), a battalion of experience he could not replace. Results went south and angst grew. Tensions rose. Monied clubs hovered. Big name players announced that they were leaving for pastures new. The club had hit the wall.

The SRU does not have the money to find a heavy hitter to replace Cockerill. The chances are that they will do what they did when Dave Rennie exited Glasgow and promote from within. At Glasgow it was Danny Wilson. At Edinburgh, it might well be Mike Blair. That could be a smart play in increasingly difficult times for the club.