Grant Gilchrist demands more from Edinburgh in 1872 decider
Following a 16-10 humbling against Glasgow last week, Edinburgh slip to 10th in the BKT United Rugby Championship. More worryingly, they have now lost three out of their last four matches.
The two sides will square off inside BT Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby, a stadium 19 players from the two teams are all too familiar with.
Edinburgh will relish the return of a battle-hardened quartet. Blair Kinghorn, Mark Bennett, Sam Skinner and Luke Crosbie all return to the starting XV after various injuries kept them out of last week’s squad.
They are part of seven changes Mike Blair has made to his side. Wes Goosen, Henry Pyrgos and Boan Venter are all part of the team that will represent Scotland’s capital in the 150th anniversary clash of World Rugby’s oldest intercity rivalry.
Warriors’ head coach Franco Smith has kept his dominant pack unchanged with the only starting switches coming in the backs. Ali Price rotates into the scrum-half jersey while Ollie Smith is the other modification to the starting XV. The full-back will join captain Kyle Steyn and Sebastian Cancelliere in the back-three.
“We put a lot into the game but we felt we just weren’t accurate enough to take the chances that we created. I can’t really fault the effort of the boys, I thought going to Scotstoun we gave ourselves the opportunity to win, which not a lot of teams do,” said Edinburgh co-captain, Grant Gilchrist.
Coming up short has been a recent theme of Edinburgh’s play. Looking back at their Saracens clash and last week’s performance at Scotstoun the team has thrown away points after lacking clinical execution at set pieces and inside the opposition 22.
“We allowed Glasgow too many opportunities through our turnovers. Some were just little switch-offs, some were skill-based as well. In a derby game you can’t give so many outs to the opposition as we did with Glasgow. That’s something we have to tidy up,” said Edinburgh’s head coach.
“Every derby game the attitude and mindset has to be there, otherwise you won’t be in with a chance of winning. But if both teams bring that, it’s then about who can be more accurate. We weren’t more accurate than Glasgow last week, so we have to be better this week,” Gilchrist added.
After failing to come up with answers to Glasgow imposing their style of play, Blair is delighted to welcome the likes of Skinner back to his scrum.
“Sam is a genuine international-class second row. His USP is around his intelligence, his management and his understanding of the game, and we felt that was going to be really important this week.”
Over 25,000 fans are expected at BT Murrayfield to witness Edinburgh’s must win game. This strong attendance follows last week’s well attended matches across the league. 117,448 fans attended the Round 10 fixtures. This was the second-highest attendance in a single round in the league’s history.
“We need to win. We’d love to win the Cup, of course we would, but we have to win the game,” said Gilchrist.
While derbies such as this are run on emotion, both captain and coach are set on securing the win first and cup second, ensuring the team does not get caught up in the crowd.
“It’s not as simple as saying yes, we go for it [the cup] 100 percent, because there are a couple of different things that rely on the result of this game. We’ve discussed what scenarios you’d keep going for an aggregate win and what scenarios you’d just take the match win,” said Blair.
“I’m not saying that anyone wanting to go for the 1872 Cup is crazy. I’m just saying there will be different opinions of what you want to do. We’ve discussed it and it might mean guys have a different feel on the day. But there are a number of different things we will have to keep into consideration,” the former Edinburgh player added.
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