WE STANK IN TO THE MYRE
Cockerill slams sloppy Gunners instead of ref
RICHARD COCKERILL branded Edinburgh’s performance “unacceptable” after they were brought down to earth with a thump at Myreside.
And he refused to blame Irish referee Dave Wilkinson for defeat at the hands of a team who hadn’t won outside Italy for 42 games.
The Gunners had gone into Pro14 battle on the back of two great victories but paid the price for a spate of mistakes.
Boss Cockerill said: “We were very poor and got what we deserved. The players have to learn from this quickly because it was totally unacceptable.
“You could argue we should have had a penalty try at the end when Treviso kept on offending.
“But we shouldn’t need a penalty try to win a match like this. I’m not going to say any more about the referee because I have been in trouble often enough over the years for doing that.
“We were 14-0 up and we had more chances. We need to revisit the mental aspect of the game.”
The Italians suffered an early setback when former Scotland age-group star Tommy Allan was stretchered off with a serious looking leg injury. Edinburgh were handed the first chance but Duncan Weir pushed his penalty wide of the far post – then made amends with a try-saving tackle on Tommaso Benvenuti.
The Gunners eventually made the breakthrough in the 17th minute when Chris Dean latched onto a feed from Robbie Fruean and dashed to the line before Weir slotted the extras.
Dean was back in the spotlight to finish in style and complete a quickfire double.
Weir again turned it into a maximum with a great angled strike – only to see Treviso repair some of the damage before the interval. Angelo Esposito crashed through for a fine score, goaled by Ian McKinley.
Edinburgh thought they had grabbed a third touchdown via Jason Harries but Wilkinson chalked it off and Treviso cashed in on the reprieve with a penalty from McKinley.
After the restart the home side were rocked when skipper Magnus Bradbury was yellow carded for illegal footwork.
McKinley found the target again to slash the gap to a single point before Esposito pounced for his second try – converted from wide out by McKinley.
Weir clawed back three points and the Gunners set up camp in the danger zone, earning three scrum penalties in succession, but they couldn’t nick glory.