Ford hopeful pre-season will give Edinburgh edge

The Scottish side finished eighth in last year's PRO12 and Ford believes they will improve on that this time around.

With head coach Alan Solomons' regime including activities such as wrestling, Ford admitted that the hardest pre-season of his life was unlike anything he had experienced in a rugby environment before.

But Scotland's most-capped hooker acknowledged it was necessary to increase fitness after Edinburgh faded down the stretch last year.

"We want to be a really physical team and that does take a toll on you over the course of a full season," Ford told the Edinburgh Evening News.

"You could see at the end of the campaign last year that our performances dropped off considerably and that was just down to not being used to what was being demanded of us week in, week out.

"We are conditioned in a different way now though. Every pre-season is hard but this one was hard in a different way.

"There was a lot of wrestling and strong-man stuff - the things Alan likes to call functional fitness.

"Fortunately I missed the majority of it with being away on tour with Scotland and then being on holiday, but when I came back it was definitely the toughest pre-season I have been through."

Ford admitted that not being a part of Edinburgh's training from the very beginning meant he was slightly behind his teammates in terms of fitness once he did join.

However, the 30-year-old is adamant that he is now more than ready for the season to get underway.

"The boys looked in really good shape when I joined up with them and trying to catch up with them during my first week back was tough," he added.

"Then they got a week off and I was beasted all week and that evened things up a bit. I feel in pretty good shape now."

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