Wing Rory Scholes aims to help Edinburgh finish on a high

Wing Rory Scholes rejects the notion that Edinburgh's season'¨is over and the next couple of weeks are merely a going through the motions formality before a merciful break and clean slate for next season.

Wing Rory Scholes says Edinburgh still have a lot to play for. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

Even by recent standards this has been a demoralising campaign for the capital pro team, with an eight-game losing streak taking the Guinness Pro12 record this season to a wince-inducing won four, lost 16, and a current ninth placing.

As in the previous three or four years, there have been flashes of what Edinburgh are capable of – some decent showings in Europe, albeit the second-tier Challenge Cup, and the odd decent win such as the one over Ulster back in the autumn. However, the overall picture has been grim and Scholes accepts that it hasn’t been good enough.

Protecting ninth place does not sound the most inspiring of tasks but the prospect of another home loss to tenth-placed Dragons, who lie two points behind, at Myreside this Friday and a further slip down the standings would make the current depressing situation even worse and the Ulsterman insisted there was a resolve to finish the season on a high. He said: “I think their coach has been talking about this being a big game for them. We don’t want them to overtake us, we want to stay above them going into the 
derby game against Glasgow. But firstly we have to look at the Dragons.”

A new broom is coming in the summer, with new head coach Richard Cockerill taking the reins from caretaker Duncan Hodge and Scholes said, while morale was understandably low given the run of results, there was no lacking in motivation going into this final home game and then the 1872 Cup return at Scotstoun.

“It hasn’t gone as we planned and the focus now is on better performances and picking up a win or two,” said the 24-year-old. “People might not think it but there is still a lot for us to play for. Next year we have a new coach coming in and there are boys going for international honours, so there is motivation there.

“There has been some good stuff in there at times but we’ve compounded that by making too many errors.

Friday night will be the last of the initial trial period at Myreside, with a review and consultation process to follow. “It’s been pretty good, we’ve enjoyed the atmosphere with the fans being a bit closer. We would obviously like to have won more games there, which would have made the feeling better and maybe got more fans to come. We don’t know what’s going to happen beyond the trial period. We just continue as normal and try to get a win.”