Rugby: Edinburgh can turn things around like Wigan, says defence coach

Defence coach Billy McGinty is drawing on the experience of playing for rugby league cracks Wigan to encourage Edinburgh Rugby charges there is light at the end of the tunnel. Edinburgh have lost five in a row ahead of Sunday’s Heineken European Cup tie with Munster at Murrayfield.

But McGinty insists fortunes can turn quickly.

He said: “I was in a Wigan team (in the late 1980s) where we were halfway down the table visiting the second top team, Widnes. We won and went on to win another 26 going from mid-November to the end of the season unbeaten.

“It just takes one thing to change with quality players functioning at the right time making the right decisions. I am confident Edinburgh will come through this.”

What hasn’t helped Edinburgh in Europe, where they have still to win and have registered a dozen points in four sectional losses, is a goal-kicking return of 31 per cent. “If you have somebody who is very, very accurate with kicking they will win games for you but that is not the reason we are losing, although it does contribute 
towards it,” admitted McGinty.