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Richard Cockerill blasts Edinburgh after throwing away PRO14 final place

By PA
Richard Cockerill (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)

Richard Cockerill admits Edinburgh got what they deserved after throwing away a place in the Guinness PRO14 final. The Scots looked set to claim a place in next Saturday’s Dublin showdown with Leinster after cutting through Ulster three times.

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They held a 12-point lead with 23 minutes left at an empty Murrayfield but blew a golden opportunity to finally break their 23-year quest for a major trophy.

With just seconds left and extra-time looming, prop Mike Willemse’ knock-on handed Ian Madigan a penalty, which he nailed to seal a stunning 22-19 victory to send Ulster through to their first final in seven years.

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But Cockerill admits Edinburgh only have themselves to blame.

The Englishman – whose side still have a European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Bordeaux to prepare for later this month – said: “It’s disappointing when you are 19-7 ahead. We didn’t control the game.

“All credit to Ulster, it’s all of our own making, we should have made better decisions and we should have executed better. It’s not good enough from us.

“We got exactly what we deserved and they got exactly what they deserved.

“In these games it’s the little things which make the difference and some of our players clearly don’t understand what that looks like.

“We’ve got international Test players with Scotland and they should know better.

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“We’ve had enough opportunities about learning and we didn’t deliver and it’s got to improve and quickly.

“We have a good group of players and we put ourselves into a good position but what they need to learn is to stay in games the whole time.

“We are going to have a good hard look at ourselves but we need to be better.”

The hosts’ defence was as solid as the rock Edinburgh Castle sits on and they took a deserved lead through skipper Stuart McInally. Darcy Graham and Chris Dean added further scores either side of a Rob Lyttle effort.

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But Edinburgh collapsed under the pressure of two late line-outs as Rob Herring and John Andrew squeezed over, handing Madigan his late shot at glory.

Ulster now face the daunting prospect of halting Leinster in their own backyard at the Aviva Stadium next week as they look to make it three titles in a row.

Coach Dan McFarland said: “It doesn’t matter who we are. No-one will give us a chance against Leinster but we will prepare properly, we’ll come up with a game plan we hope will work and we’ll give it a shot.

“I wouldn’t say I was confident at 12 points down, not the way we were playing up until that point.

“We had made a lot of mistakes. We hadn’t played particularly well.

“But the effort was there and we also demonstrated that with a little bit of ambition in our play we could do damage.

“That showed in the second half.”

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SK 57 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

The way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.

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