Richard Cockerill knows Edinburgh face crucial two weeks to salvage European hopes

Richard Cockerill admits the next two weeks will be crucial in deciding whether his Edinburgh side can salvage their European ambitions.

The Murrayfield boss was looking for a win over Munster on Saturday night to boost their hopes of clinching the third and final Heineken Champions Cup place on offer in the Guinness PRO14’s B conference.

But they slumped to a 22-10 defeat against the conference leaders and registered their seventh defeat of a miserable campaign.

Cockerill knows time is running out with just five games remaining and his team 11 points behind third-placed Scarlets, who have played two games more than Edinburgh.

And he admits their next two games against the Welsh outfit and basement boys Benetton will be pivotal.

He said: “We had an opportunity to take a point out of the game tonight and didn’t manage it. Anything out of the game tonight would have been good for us.

“We know we’ve got to beat the teams around us. The games against Scarlets and Benetton in the next two weeks are going to be very important games. Then Connacht, Cardiff and Dragons.

“This was a tough one to start with in that block. We did some very good things and on another day we would have got a bit more out of the game.

“But at key moments, we just weren’t good enough.”