Edinburgh similar side to London Irish - Richard Cockerill

Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill believes the Scottish regional side will be of the same category as the bottom teams in the Aviva Premiership.

The former England international took in charge of Edinburgh ahead of the ongoing season after spending close to 12 years with English club Leicester Tigers and a brief consultancy role with Toulon earlier this year.

Drawing comparison between the Murrayfield Stadium outfit and the Aviva Premiership clubs, Cockerill believes Edinburgh will be on the same scale as London Irish, who they face next in the European Challenge Cup opener.

"I think Edinburgh would be in and around that group of teams – the Gloucesters and the London Irishes," said Cockerill.

"The [Aviva] Premiership seems to be a top six and a bottom six. With the budgets that we work on, and where we are at the moment, we’re not a dissimilar side to London Irish."

Edinburgh had an indifferent start to the season as they won the first two games of the Pro 14 and followed it with three straight defeats before returning back to winning ways with a tight 16-15 win over Zebre, though it came at a cost of injuries to few players.

“It was not ideal with [full-back Blair] Kinghorn going off very early.

"James Johnstone had a nasty knock to the head – he’s okay and he’s recovering well. Blair’s got quite a nasty laceration on his knee from a blade when he was making a tackle.

"We’re okay. We’ve got a few bumps and bruises, but no more than they got. We’ve got a good squad and we’ll use it this weekend."

Following the European Challenge Cup game against London Irish at Madejski Stadium on Saturday, Edinburgh will travel to Moscow to lock horns with Krasny Yar in the round two of the tournament on 21st October.