Richard Cockerill: Edinburgh boss warns players to put club before country

“The club and trying to be competitive in the [Pro14] is important, and as a professional player making sure you have pride and respect in what you do every day and how you go about your business.

“I’m not concerned about the national team – it is important, because I’ve got a lot of players that will play for the national side – but first and foremost they have to win, prepare well, play well for Edinburgh.

“If they do that, they’ll play for me, and they’ll play for the national side. If they don’t, they won’t play for me or the national side. On a day-to-day basis, they need to understand they need to perform for Edinburgh, and if they don’t, they won’t be with us.”

Edinburgh have long languished in the league’s lower reaches, finishing no higher than eighth since 2011.

Cockerill has spoken before of the need to “earn back respect” and credibility for the club, and accepts the improvements will take some time to show.

“I’m excited by trying to reinvent what they’re doing and get us competitive in the competition,” he said.

“We’ve got to go back to basics – firstly, we need to realise where we’re at, which is a bottom-four team as it stands and that’s the reality. We’ve got to create a culture of hard work and understanding what it takes to be a successful team every day.

“We need to build some foundations that we can move forward on for the next three, four, five, six years.”