Attacking belief key for Hoyland
ONE of the young stars of Edinburgh’s sensational European Challenge Cup win over Harlequins on Saturday has revealed some of the secrets to the club’s turnaround in recent weeks.
Acting head coach Duncan Hodge has been at pains to stress that departed coach Alan Solomons should take a lot of the credit for the improvement in the team, and that he has made only ‘little changes’, but winger Damien Hoyland admitted that the five tries by Allan Dell, Blair Kinghorn, Nasi Manu, Hamish Watson and himself, that rocked the English Premiership side in Saturday’s first half, stemmed from astute analysis combined with a new belief and desire to move the ball.
‘One of the main things we’ve been working on for a while is our reaction when we counter-attack,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure how many of our tries came on the counter-attack, but we always had forwards there distributing the ball into the space we knew would be there.
‘I think we’ve all got belief just now and we’ve been given the licence to have a crack, especially off a counterattack. Hodgey has said he’s not going to criticise us for trying things — there’s nothing wrong with making mistakes if you’re trying the right things.
‘We’ve got a young team but that was probably our strongest team when you consider the injuries, so it’s not like we are trying to pick a young team. It just happens to be the young guys who are stepping up.’
Hoyland, at 22, is part of a crop of talents emerging at the right time for Scotland as Gregor Townsend prepares to take over in 2017 and try to build on the promise shown in Glasgow by players such as Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Jonny Gray.
Edinburgh have played second fiddle in recent times, but with Hoyland, Chris Dean, Kinghorn and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne adding to the ability of Tom Brown, Glenn Bryce and Sean Kennedy — led superbly by players such Jason Tovey and Phil Burleigh — there is a real quality emerging in the backs.
Up front, Grant Gilchrist is looking forward to a first full international season and behind front rows Ross Ford and WP Nel, he will expect to have Rory Sutherland, Hamish Watson, Magnus Bradbury and Jamie Ritchie pushing for a Scotland jersey this season.
Outsmarting top English opposition is a good way to impress international coaches, and despite a couple of wayward line-outs, the set-piece was well matched and the defence unstinting.
But Saturday’s stunning victory was won by a superior pace and desire on the counter-attack from the hosts that simply blew Quins away in the first half and stretched Edinburgh’s record of home wins in the Challenge Cup to nine.
Quins started ominously with a try from Charlie Walker after just three minutes, and later with a penalty try off a collapsed maul.
Edinburgh soaked up the pressure, forced errors and pounced, again and again, to score 31 points before half-time — Quins ruing the decision to run a close-range penalty in the final minutes that led to Hoyland intercepting and sprinting the length of the pitch for the fifth score.
After half-time, the game swung the other way as an English side led by James Horwill and featuring Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown, Nick Evans and Jamie Roberts, left their complacency and shock in the dressing room, tightened up control of the ball and went on to score 21 points without reply through a second penalty try and scores from prop Kyle Sinckler and Kiwi back row Mat Luamanu.
It was a feisty battle that spilled over at times and four yellow cards were dished out, to Joe Marler, Walker and Tovey in the first half, and Gilchrist in the second, which only made Edinburgh’s fightback in the closing ten minutes all the more impressive.
Finally, Edinburgh built possession through phases, to attack the Quins 22, and, when a penalty was signalled, Hoyland took on a ‘free play’, hoisting the ball high to the Quins goalline where Brown rose to claim it and twist his body in the tackle to reach over the line for a stunning match winner.
‘I just put the ball on the foot and Tom got to it,’ said Hoyland.
That underlined how Edinburgh are turning a corner. Solomons brought in experience and improved fitness, conditioning and defensive structures significantly, and now his coaches are further developing the attacking skills, game understanding and belief to seriously challenge.
The trick now for Hodge is to find consistency and rise from ninth in the Guinness Pro12 table, with games against Zebre, Ulster, the Dragons and Ospreys, before they return to Europe and back-to-back matches with Stade Francais in December.