Assistant coach Stevie Lawrie admits Edinburgh must sort out their form away from home if they are to be serious play-off contenders come the end of the season.  

Edinburgh are still to win on the road this season after defeat to the Ospreys on Saturday, which followed two loses in South Africa.  

As the league takes a pause for the Autumn Nations Series, Lawrie reflected on this first six-match block.  

Asked to sum it up, he said: “It’s quite simple: 12 points at home and one away would be the story of it for me.  

“We’ve shown that we can play - but we’ve not got it right on the road.  

“We’ve got to be in the battle every single weekend. There’s been growth in a lot of areas, but we need to see that away from home as well. 

“We need to make sure that we stay on task. We’re not a million miles away. I know people say that a lot, but you’re really not - you’re never as good as you think you are and you’re never as bad as you think you are and that’s a great way to look at it.  

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“We’ve just got to make sure we’re driving those one-percenters every single day. And it’s relentless, because there are no bad teams in this league. 

“We’ve seen some good energy from our younger players as well in this first block. It’s important that we keep integrating them with the older guys.” 

Lawrie dismissed the idea that the absence of key men like Pierre Schoeman and Darcy Graham – who were both rested – was part of Edinburgh’s problem in the 22-13 defeat in Bridgend.  

Darcy Graham was among the Scotland internationals who sat out the trip to Wales, but Lawrie said that was not an excuse for a poor Edinburgh performanceDarcy Graham was among the Scotland internationals who sat out the trip to Wales, but Lawrie said that was not an excuse for a poor Edinburgh performance (Image: SNS) "They’ve all had an opportunity to play in those away games. We were pretty stacked against the Bulls and the Lions.  

“I think it’s a squad and an organisational issue - as an organisation we need to make sure the environment provides the opportunity for us to go away and be physical and robust. 

“This game is about constant challenge. If we keep up the honest conversations and we keep training as hard as we can, we’ll get better - because we have got a good squad and we know we’re not maximising it at the minute.”   

The former hooker, who had two spells with Edinburgh as a player before joining the coaching staff in 2019, also rebuked the suggestion that there is a problem culturally at the club.  

He said: "We go in every day and Sean Everitt is driving as hard an environment as I’ve seen. 

“We need to have belief in what we’re doing, and we need to make sure that we’re driving people in the right way and we’re getting the behaviour changes that we need. 

“There is an underlying issue here about how robust we are at times, in the big moments. There’s no hiding away from that, so we need to hit that head-on. We’ve got the personnel in the organisation to do that.” 

The majority of Edinburgh’s squad will now go on holiday for the next two weeks. Lawrie, though, will not be putting his feet up as he prepares for the visit of Benetton on November 30.  

He added: “The break gives us a huge opportunity to fix a few of our ills, but also work on the bits that have gone well. 

“We’ve shown the ability to score bonus points, so that’s great, but we need to be better in adapting to how to win games. 

“Away from home you have to get your physical markers and your discipline right.  

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“On Saturday we didn’t do that. I don’t think we did that well enough at all against the Bulls when we had a massive opportunity, and then the Lions was more because we went off strat in that first half and they’re a team that can hurt you when you get a bit loose. 

“Discipline away from home is huge and that comes through winning physical battles, because if you win the physical battles the referee is going to be on your side.” 

And although Edinburgh are 10th in the URC table, they are only six points behind the Bulls in third. Lawrie said the first six games, while not perfect, have set a base for the rest of the season.  

“There’s a huge opportunity here for the group to kick on,” he said. 

“We’d rather be sitting at the top of the table, but we’ve given ourselves a base. We’ve got the opportunity to reflect honestly, and we’ve got to make some change.  

“Twelve points at home and one away - it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what we need to do.”