Edinburgh Rugby’s Roddy Grant discusses his side’s latest performance and result ahead of looming European and Guinness Pro14 fixtures.

Grant is a glass half full type of guy and that couldn’t be more evident in his assessment and post-match analysis of Edinburgh latest offering against Benetton Rugby on Friday night.

“Hopefully we will look back on [the Benetton result] and think it was a mental wake-up call,” the second year Edinburgh assistant forwards coach said this week.

“In professional sport, it’s pretty black and white that winning is good for everything: for table points, for mentality, for confidence and psychology. A win is good for everyone. And if you don’t get it you just have to try and win the next game.

If you get 30 points against you, it is a concern. However, we’ve been very good in defence last season and this season until now. I suppose it’s the proverbial blip. We’re not too concerned going forward and we’ll continue to work hard to improve.”

Edinburgh may have secured a bonus point against Benetton last Friday, despite almost throwing away a 16-point lead in what could only be described as abysmal second forty, but the former backrower assessed that it was a performance his side may have needed if they are to be ready for a slate of important domestic and European fixtures.

“It’s clear that we can’t repeat that against the teams we’re going against soon,” continued Grant.

“Against anyone in the Guinness PRO14 or in Europe, if you’re not on your game you’re going to run into trouble. It can’t happen again. Hopefully that was one of those get out of jail free cards done and we will move on.

There were errors within the system. It is a good system and we have been good at it. When you have a performance like that on that side of the ball everyone has to take stock.”

Grant added: “Mentally we weren’t quite on it and if you’re not 100 per cent on it you get punished. It’s difficult if you have the ball for 20 minutes and then suddenly you’re defending and you get caught off guard. The momentum changes and unless you rein it in the thread can unravel quickly.”

Grant and his charges will have an ideal opportunity to prove they are learning from their mistakes, and ready for a tough Heineken Champions Cup schedule which begins with a trip to France to take on Vern Cotter’s Montpellier, when they face a struggling Toyota Cheetah side Friday at BT Murrayfield Stadium.

“Despite their obvious disappointments, the South Africans will be keen to build on last weekend’s promising performance which saw the Bloemfontein outfit lose narrowly to Cardiff Blues, 24-21.

They’ve had a change in personnel; a lot of their guys have moved to Europe so there are new faces,” added Grant.

“They’ve played some really good rugby. They’ve been in the games bar that first one at Munster [lost 38-0 away] up until the very end. They just need to put together an 80-minute performance. They’ve got the typical big athletic, physical forwards, some really good backs.

Franco Smith the new coach was at Treviso so he knows the league well. His teams can be unpredictable attacking wise, Treviso were like that. They’ll get better as it goes on, I guess when they don’t have the Currie Cup as well, they’ll consolidate.”

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