Edinburgh will continue to “supplement” Scottish qualified players with imports as more and more of the team are required for Scotland duty or attracting envious eyes from clubs with bigger budgets, says Richard Cockerill.
The head coach wouldn’t confirm a deal was being sought for next season with Scotland stand-off/centre James Lang – currently with Harlequins – nor that Cheetahs prop Boan Venter has already been signed up to join in February.
But ahead of the 1872 Cup he stressed that with so many demands on his squad he had to look for players who would be available to him in international windows.
“We are talking to several players at the moment about next season so at this point we have nothing to report on that,” he said. “If there is an opportunity to get a player in that will strengthen our stocks we will look at that. Boan is one of a few we have been looking at and talking to.
Options at ten
“We are looking for options at ten, which is sensible. In the backs we need a bit more strengthening and we need a bit more quality there, so we are having a look.”
The recruitment was driven by the constraints of Covid-era budgets, but also by just ensuring he had a squad to play each week, he said.
“Moving forward we will have two loosehead props away with Scotland as well as a hooker, two tightheads, two locks, and all our back row,” he pointed out.
“You have to plan with some certainty you are going to have some players to play for you. Pierre Schoeman and Rory Sutherland are the best two looseheads in Scotland, so if they are both available I assume they are going to get picked.
“We have two Scottish tightheads who will go away if selected. We need some players to play and the depth of purely Scottish qualified guys is not as deep as we would all like.”
Strong contingent of Scots
He wasn’t being pushed into bringing in non-Scottish qualified (SQ) players, he stressed.
“If you look at the positions in which we have non-SQ players, we also have a very strong contingent of SQ players,” he continued. “When Pierre Schoeman becomes qualified 75 per cent of our looseheads will be Scottish qualified, so that’s a pretty good ratio.
“We have that across all our positions. If we do have a foreign player in there, we have SQ players in there as well.
“They’re not replacing Scottish qualified players, they’re supplementing them.”
Edinburgh will do everything they can to keep key men
Talk of his players like Duhan van der Merwe, Rory Sutherland, Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson being coveted by rich clubs in France and England was “a compliment”, added Cockerill.
“If people across the world are trying to nick our players it shows we are doing something right,” he said. “I’m confident we can keep our players and we’ll work as hard as we can to keep them.
“If our players are getting linked with other teams I’ll take it as a compliment and so should the players.
“It doesn’t mean our players will be leaving, I can guarantee that. We will do everything we can to keep them.”
The enforced break because Covid-19 positives meant the first 1872 Cup game was postponed probably worked out best for both teams, he said.
“You get very few opportunities in professional rugby to get a three or four-day break over Christmas, so we made the best of it,” he said.
“It was also good that all the international players on protocols got their week’s rest. They can now all play in the next few weeks which we’re delighted about.”