EDINBURGH have confessed they plan to focus on the Heineken Champions Cup challenge over the next few weeks, even if it costs them this week's Guinness PRO14 match in Munster.
Richard Cockerill, the head coach, had already complained bitterly about the schedule which saw them play in South Wales late last Sunday and then be sent to Cork in the south of Ireland five days later.
He had already agreed to give the club's Scotland players time off this week, so has no choice other than to send a weakened team out to Munster – knowing how that might impact the result.
"I am not going to pick 10 international players, so that is 10 missing for a start," he explained. "The reality is that you could take your best team to Munster and not win, so there is no point dragging guys back from two-and-a-half to three test matches, taking them to Cork and comprising Europe."
It means he will he taking an even weaker team to face Munster, who are second in their conference, than he took to play the Dragons, bottom of their group, last week.
"The reality is that the team we take to Munster shouldn’t win, but we will prepare as well as we can and go with a mindset to win," he added.
"In the games we have lost we have taken three losing bonus points and we have three try bonus points. We are still in the mix, not a million miles away from the top three. We will keep battling away.
"You have to deal with the reality of this and how we manage this properly. I can pick my best team this weekend, but what will you get out of that?
"They have had a hard run and then you have to take them to play Newcastle, Newcastle, Glasgow and Glasgow [in the next four matches]."
Though the position has been made worse by a lengthy injury list – which means they are struggling to find enough players to fill all the places in the back five of the scrum and the two replacements for those roles – they are also a victim of their own success.
They have sent far more players to join the Scotland squads than was the case as recently as a year ago and, instead of being able to rest players during the Heineken Challenge Cup, they have to get ready for the senior tournament.
"We are sitting with the union and saying ‘how does this work? Maybe we need to look at the funding model because this will continue’.
"It is a little false at the moment because you are missing guys who would normally be with you. That puts a magnifying glass on the depth. But if we are contributing eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 guys to the national team then at some point we are going to need more funding – or equal funding across the pro teams."
Cockerill acknowledged that, with regular sell-out crowds at Scotstoun, Glasgow are probably in a stronger financial position, but still feels the odds are stacked against his club.
After all, Edinburgh are coming from defeat by the Dragons – a club that had previously won only two games this season. But now Cockerill's squad have to juggle the demands of two European games before the annual festive derbies against Glasgow.
"We are in a good place in Europe but we have to win three from four to qualify – a bare minimum," he pointed out.
"We physically have not got the numbers to cope with where we are at the moment and still to be putting in a robust enough side against Munster.
"The reality is we are missing 10 internationals plus Matt Scott and Mark Bennett, as well as the forwards. The budget we are on we promote from within, or take guys on loan.
"We are struggling to put a back five together with a bench but we have to look at the bigger picture. There is far-reaching thinking going on here.
"It is going to be a challenge. We will prepare as well as we can. We travel on Thursday, play Friday night and have some tired bodies because it was 48 minutes ball-in-play time at the weekend.
"When it is high ball in play, the players are playing to their max. It is tough but when you are developing young guys, all together, because of circumstance, there is a bit of pain that comes with it."
How much of that pain will be felt on Friday night in Cork remains to be seen but Cockerill has no doubt he has no alternative other than to keep his eye on the main prize, even if that means having to accept the problems that will create on the way.
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