Brave enough is big enough for Richard Cockerill, which is why Darcy Graham is being pitched in for an Edinburgh debut against London Irish in the European Challenge Cup today.
The hooker turned head coach was not the biggest himself in his playing days, but the emphasis on size has only grown since then, but he has seen something he likes in the 20-year-old who rattled in eight tries for Scotland at last weekend’s Dubai Sevens.
“I think the modern game big is beautiful isn’t it?” Cockerill observed.
“There’s a lot of big, powerful men about, but I think Darcy’s skillset and pace and attitude for a guy that’s 80 kilos, or just over 80 kilos, which is small in today’s rugby world, there’s a place for him, because he’s got such pace and tenacity and he’ll get better the more he plays, so I think there’s a big future for him.”
That said the first person he had to persuade was Graham himself.
“He’s not very big and that’s the first thing he said to me that he felt he wasn’t big enough and I said, ‘well you’re quite good.’ So if he’s good he can play,” said Cockerill.
“He’s very tenacious, he’s very brave, not scared of the contact part, very good under the high ball, very brave in the air, has no awareness of his own health when he goes up for balls in the air and he doesn’t back away from any contest.
“Even if he’s playing against big men he will tackle hard and he will put everything into his game. So there’s a lot to like about him and he can finish as we saw last weekend.
“He’s a good Scottish young player who’s come though the system, there’s a lot to like about him, so he’s getting the opportunity to prove himself and if he plays better than the others he can play no problem.
“I just love his attitude. He’s a very talented player with a perfect attitude for this team and I’m glad we’re able to give him his debut this weekend.”
His selection can, however, be seen as indicative of Cockerill’s attitude to the Challenge Cup as he continues to assess his squad.
“We want to try to win every time we play,” he said when asked whether their two wins in their opening two matches, both away from home at London Irish and Krasny Yar, had brought about a change of emphasis.
“This competition, some take it more seriously than others. We’ve rotated heavily through the first two games. We’ve rotated and mixed the squad up for this week and we will for next week.”
That also goes some way to explaining this weekend’s introduction to the starting line-up of Murray McCallum at tighthead prop.
“Murray has improved his fitness this year,” he said.
“He hasn’t had a huge amount of opportunity up to this point, but he’ll get more. It’s good for him to get a start this weekend and he’s going to have to develop quickly.
“Tighthead is a very difficult position to recruit in. We’ve got some really good potential in the people that we have: we just need to get the best out of them. Murray’s improving a lot, and the more time he gets hopefully the better he’ll become.”
Cockerill noted that today’s opponents have clearly taken a similar attitude, albeit they are fielding what looks, on paper, to be a much stronger squad at Myreside than when they played host to Edinburgh in October.
“Obviously I know a lot of their squad,” he said.
“It’s certainly a mixed team and they’re rotating a fair bit. After the two European games they go to Worcester in the Premiership which is obviously a very important game for them.
“But they’re bringing guys back in… Gordon Reid, Fainga’a, Manasa Saulo, a full international front-row, Steele and Tommy Bell are a good half back combination, so I think they’ve put out a slightly stronger side on paper that when we went away from home, but obviously guys like Gordon Reid, Fainga’a, Saulo haven’t played much this year.
“They’re coming back from injury, so I’m sure they’re trying to get game time into their players. I think their priority will be the Premiership for obvious reasons and survival there, but we’ve got a job to do.
“They’ll bring who they bring, they’ll play as hard as they can, but we need to make sure we get it right. We’ve been on good form, we’ve played some good rugby and we need to make sure we continue that.”
However Cockerill did seem to recognise that the Challenge Cup is beginning to look as if it has the potential to help him get off to a flying start as Edinburgh coach by acquiring a trophy in his first season at the club.
“Europe’s been good to this squad historically and we want to continue that. At some point we want to try to be competitive and win silverware. We’ll try to do that on both fronts if we can,” he said.
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