Grant Gilchrist says Edinburgh are stronger now than 2012 Euro stars

Edinburghs Grant Gilchrist takes part in training ahead of their European Champions Cup clash with Newcastle Falcons. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS/SRU

Edinburgh made a stunning charge to the Heineken Cup semi-finals in 2012 under Irish coach Michael Bradley, when Gilchrist was in his first season as a pro but the Scotland lock believes the current set-up under Richard Cockerill is far more advanced and the club now have the ability to fight on two fronts.

In 2011-12, Edinburgh ended up in a situation where their top team, which included the likes of Dave Denton, Mike Blair, Greig Laidlaw, Nick de Luca and Tim Visser, was preserved for those big European games while the back-up  players struggled to a second-bottom finish in the then Magners League.

As well placed as they are at the top of Pool 5 in the Heineken Champions Cup this season ahead of Sunday’s trip to face Newcastle, another semi-final place would still be a highly ambitious target.

However, Gilchrist is in no doubt that the present Edinburgh are built on more solid foundations than that rather ephemeral, dreamlike run when he was just starting out in his senior career.

“I think we definitely have a lot more strength across the board than we did back when when we probably had a strong 23 and then there was not a lot of change across the whole competition,” said the 28-year-old.

“It was almost the same XV at times, the same XV week on week. You can see there is a depth in our squad now though we are hampered a bit by injuries in key positions and during the international period.

“With everyone fit we definitely have a stronger squad that we can use to change guys in and out to be effective.”

Back then Edinburgh topped a group which included Cardiff, London Irish and Racing 92 (then Metro), including a thrilling home and away double over the French side. A famous quarter-final win over Toulouse in front of nearly 38,000 at Murrayfield was followed by a 22-19 semi-final loss to Ulster in Dublin. The young Gilchrist played in all but one of the pool games and recalled: “It was my first season with Edinburgh and I was just delighted to be playing and be involved.

“It was a whirlwind, you put yourself in a position and all of a sudden, not too dissimilar to now, if you can get yourself in a position in the first few games then these games start to become really, really exciting.

“For us, being back at the top table was always the goal. The first two weekends, there was a real buzz about the squad anyway but that has gone up, certainly after the weekend [a 31-13 home win over Newcastle]. You only have to look at the table and see what opportunity lies there.

“It is now in our hands, we understand that. I have been here for whatever it is – eight years? – and this is our only chance to get there again since the last time. It adds to the excitement in the squad to go out there on Sunday and see if we can get the win to put ourselves in a great position.”

Edinburgh sit proudly top of Pool 5 on 11 points, ahead of Newcastle on eight, but with the French duo of Montpellier and Toulon on six it is easily the most wide open section at this stage, with all four teams still in the hunt.

Another victory over the  Falcons, who continue to be hit by a tighthead injury crisis, on Sunday would clearly be a big step towards the last eight but Gilchrist is expecting the  English side to be a tough proposition on their home patch, with the familiar face of John Hardie expected to add his Test experience to the mix.

“It’s great to see John back playing,” said Gilchrist.

“He’s a quality player, he was for us and for Scotland.

“I’m delighted for him that he’s got his chance at  Newcastle but I hope he doesn’t have his best game at the weekend.”

Gilchrist said the Edinburgh players are relishing these big games after years spent in the Challenge Cup wildnerness, albeit they did have an enjoyable run to the final of the second-tier competition in 2015.

“We are just excited to be really challenging ourselves,” said the lock. “It is a higher level than the Pro14 week in, week out. It is a jump up and we wanted to challenge ourselves and see where we got to.

“We didn’t know how it would go, that is what the [opening] Montpellier game [a 21-15 defeat] felt like – there was a nervous energy around the squad about how we would cope. We’d played in the Challenge Cup for a good few years and were not sure how well equipped we were to handle it.

“We came so close in that Montpellier game and though we did not take the full points we could have if we had been a bit more accurate, we got belief from that.”