EDINBURGH coach Richard Cockerill has called for Myreside to be used rather than the national stadium if the 1872 Challenge Cup series goes to a deciding match in the Spring.
The first two Inter-City derbies of the season will take place this weekend and next, with the opener at BT Murrayfield tomorrow and a return match at Glasgow Warriors’ home ground, Scotstoun, the following Saturday.
However, when it was put to him that it was giving away home advantage to play the Edinburgh leg at a stadium that has regularly been home to more of the current Glasgow squad than his own Edinburgh squad when internationals have been played there in recent years, Cockerill was inclined to agree with that analysis.
“Yeah, I mean I think there is a thought around that, but look, it’s a great stadium, there are well over 20,000 tickets sold, so we’ve got to just get on with it,” he said.
“They’ll be familiar with it, no doubt. We’ll see what happens in the last game of the season – maybe we’ll be at Myreside and we can sell it out.
“We can have our own home fixture with our own home stadium, but we’ll see,” Cockerill added.
The Edinburgh coach also noted that the nature of the facility favours Glasgow’s style of play.
“They [Glasgow] are very used to the stadium,” said Cockerill. “It has a great surface and a full size pitch and that will suit some teams against us.
“Purely from an Edinburgh point of view, we need to play as many games as possible at our home ground, Myreside, and make that as difficult a place to come as any other home ground.
“Murrayfield is a great stadium with a great pitch and great facilities, but it makes it comfortable for everyone, not just ourselves.”
That view was partially confirmed by Dave Rennie, his Glasgow Warriors opposite number who is also preparing for his first derby and said he did not necessarily see the venue as offering his men an advantage, but admitted that: “It is the same for either side.”
However, Cockerill’s preference for playing matches at Myreside seemed to go even beyond that since he clearly sees having an established home ground as contributing to the change of outlook he is trying to encourage at Edinburgh.
Reared in the Leicester Tigers environment when they were the dominant side in the English game in the 1990s, Cockerill experienced something similar when their marketing men sought to capitalise on big European ties by moving games to Leicester FC’s home ground, but said his preference was always to stay at their Welford Road home.
For all that he recognised that such decisions are for businessmen to make, he clearly sees generating a sense of home advantage as part of what is required if he is to continue his work with the side.
“Myreside is our home ground,” he said.
“If we want to build the culture of the club we need our home stadium.
“For me, personally, as many big games we play at Myreside and sell the place out the better, but my job is to get the performance right so I’ll leave that to other people,” he added.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here