HONEST truths could be the secret ingredient in making sure that Edinburgh's shock defeat by Benetton Treviso last week turns out to be an early-season blip and not the start of a losing pattern.
That is the prediction from lock Ben Toolis, who feels the side needed a more brutal coaching approach and are now getting it from Richard Cockerill.
Certainly there was an air of trepidation about the squad when they gathered for their first session of the week, and a few days later it was still there. "We knew we were going to face some honest truths, but that’s what we needed and perhaps have been lacking – a bit of honesty," he said.
"Cockers [Cockerill] is always going to give you the brutal truth, he keeps us on our toes. We found out on Friday that you have to perform whoever you play. It was a kick we needed to push us on.
"The meeting we had wasn’t enjoyable but at the same time it needed to happen. After it, the boys went out and had a really good [training] session. We’re now looking forward to this week’s game.”
They all know that anything like a repeat of last week's performance and they are going to get hammered when they travel to Llanelli in South Wales to take on the Scarlets, the reigning champions.
That, however, has been a recurring problem for Edinburgh over the years. They have long since developed a knack of raising their game against the big teams but allowing complacency to creep in against lesser opposition, so that they are consistently one level worse than whoever they are playing.
"We’ve had this environment where we feel like we’ll be fine, we’ll get out of it and win. We never actually do," Toolis accepted. "Sometimes, maybe, the team thinks one individual will do it and step up. We need to realise it’s a team effort and we all need to step up. That’s been a problem in the past.
"Against Cardiff and the Dragons there was a bit of a change and we got out of the deep end, came away with the win and pushed on. There were positives there, but against teams we would expect to beat, there needs to be improvement. I think we are improving. It’s not going to happen over night but I’m sure it will happen.”
As he pointed out, Edinburgh were one of the sides who beat the Scarlets last season, in a home match where the Welsh side were fielding all their big-name players. So they know they can play at that level, the problem is doing it consistently.
"It’s quite easy to front up to a strong team like Scarlets. It’s always easy to get the motivation up. It’s games like against the likes of Treviso, when you are expected to win, then it can be harder to get that motivation. It will be easy to get the heads straight. stick it to them and show them what we’re all about,” Toolis concluded.
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