'I wasn't against the way Cockers did things... but it's more fun this year'

Magnus Bradbury believes the feelgood factor in the Edinburgh camp under head coach Mike Blair has helped him take his game to new heights.

The 26-year-old back-row has been in impressive form this term for a team riding high near the top of the United Rugby Championship.

Bradbury feels part of his improvement is down to the positive vibe around the club since Blair took over from Richard Cockerill last summer.

He said: “I’ve been really pleased with the way I’ve been playing recently. I feel I’ve played some good rugby. It’s credit to the coaching staff as well, the way things have changed in terms of giving boys like me more time with ball in hand.

“It’s a great place to be if you want to play good attacking rugby. It’s hard work but I’ve been thrilled with it. It’s all falling into place nicely.

“I feel like I’ve grown quite a lot this season. As a team, everybody’s got a chance to express themselves.

“The training is good. I wasn’t against the way Cockers did things in the previous couple of years, but there is more of a focus on fun this year, and that probably makes quite a lot of the boys look forward to training a bit more.

“Even in pre-season, when you know it’s going to be brutal, I was looking forward to going into training. It’s good to have that feeling because it helps the whole team if everyone is in a good head-space.”

Edinburgh, who won their last five matches in all competitions before Christmas, return to action at home to Cardiff this Saturday after their two matches against Glasgow were postponed following an outbreak of Covid in the Scotstoun camp.

Bradbury said: “It’s quite frustrating that we’ve not had a chance to try and build on our form, but we just have to deal with it as best we can.

“We’re disappointed the big games were off but it’s given us a chance to work on things we might not otherwise have done. We’ve been training hard so hopefully we won’t have lost any of our form and hopefully we can put it into play on Saturday.”