Edinburgh forward Glen Young believes his team has only themselves to blame for the precarious position in which they find themselves going into the final round of Challenge Cup pool games.
With barely five minutes to go against Gloucester on Saturday night, the capital club seemed to have put themselves into the driving seat when second-half tries by Ewan Ashman and Ben Vellacott added to a first-half touchdown from Young himself put them 20-14 ahead. If they had closed out the win from that point, they would be all but through to the last 16 as one of the top four teams in Pool 3. Instead, Gloucester hit back to win 21-20, with Adam Hastings scoring the winning conversion, meaning that Edinburgh will now go to Scarlets on Friday in search of the bonus-point win which would guarantee qualification no matter what happens in the other two pool games.
“There’s been a few games like that this season,” Young said. “A few games where we’ve done it and won, but on Saturday we lost.
“We gave away too many turnovers and were our own worst enemy. We showed a bit of resilience to get back into the game and have a chance to win it at the end, but it’s our own fault. Giving away 20 turnovers at home, it’s always going to be hard.”
Of the six sides in the pool, Gloucester are the only ones to have guaranteed their place in the knockout stages, while Scarlets are the only ones who are already eliminated. Edinburgh are currently fourth, a point ahead of Black Lion and four behind Castres and Clermont.
Young’s team could lose to Scarlets and still go through as long as Black Lion fail to pick up any match points at home to Clermont, but the latter match is on Saturday, so the aim will be to leave nothing to chance and win in Wales. “It’s very important that we recover well and have a big focus on next week, because we want to go and get a win down there,” he added.
The defeat was clearly a significant setback for Edinburgh, albeit one that could be overcome, but there is nonetheless a firm belief within the squad that they have stabilised and are heading in the right direction under Sean Everitt, who signed a two-year contract extension on Saturday and now has the title of head coach rather than the ‘senior’ label he was given when he joined last summer.
“I’ve been here three years now - it was Richard Cockerill who signed me, then Mike [Blair became head coach] and now Sean,” Young continued. “It’s been a bit of a turnover since I’ve come, so hopefully now with stability Sean can build the squad he wants and we can only go upwards from there. I love working with him, I can say that personally, and I think a lot of the boys do.”
Primarily a second-row, Young played at blindside on Saturday. While injuries to Jamie Ritchie and Luke Crosbie may have necessitated the switch, he looked far from out of place. If that was partly because he has moved to the back row before during matches, it was also because he has the speed and the versatility to slot in there.
Now 29, he has been playing some of the best rugby of his career over the past couple of months, and surely has a good chance of making a return to the Scotland squad tomorrow [Tues] when Gregor Townsend announces his initial squad for the Six Nations. “Hopefully, fingers crossed,” he said.
“I’ve said it from the start of the season, I’m going to concentrate on playing as much as I can for Edinburgh. I love playing here and if I play as well as I can, who knows, that could happen. But I’m going to concentrate on playing here, because I really enjoy it. If that happens I’ll be very pleased.”
Young’s main competition could come from his clubmate Sam Skinner, who like himself is a lock who can slot into the back row. Edinburgh captain Grant Gilchrist is sure to be selected, but Young insisted that he does not measure himself against his team-mate and look to take his place.
“Nah, I don’t think so. The good thing when I play with Gilco is we complement each other. I’d say we’re totally different players. Some of the stuff he does really well I’m not so good at, and some of the stuff I might be good at is maybe not his strength.
“I think we complement each other well and I really like playing with him, so I wouldn’t say we’re direct competition. When we’re at Edinburgh it’s about trying to play well together and getting the team playing.”
