Edinburgh suffer fifth loss in a row
EDINBURGH will head into next week’s European Challenge Cup quarter-final with La Rochelle on the back of five straight Guinness Pro12 defeats after this dismal display in Llanelli. Rhys Patchell’s second-minute try was an early indication of what was to come. The Wales stand-off strolled his way through untouched from 40 yards before sliding down. A botched kick from Steffan Evans gifted Edinburgh territory and they made it count when Duncan Weir put over a penalty on six minutes. But Wyn Jones then crashed over for the hosts and it soon got worse when James Davies collected Patchell’s delicious pop pass for try No 3. Edinburgh were given a lifeline seconds after the restart when Ross Ford blocked Aled Davies’ box kick. The ball landed in Allan Dell’s hands, which allowed Phil Burleigh to touch down. Patchell then went over for his second and the bonus point following Davies’ turnover. Viliame Mata summed up the visitors’ troubles when he was sin-binned by Irish referee John Lacey following a deliberate knock-on. After the break, Scarlets wing Evans halted what looked a certain Blair Kinghorn try after the full-back galloped through. Acting head coach Duncan Hodge insisted his team will have to pick themselves back up for the European tie. ‘We weren’t very good in the first half and not much better in the second,’ he said. ‘We had across-the-board errors. ‘It was a scrappy game, we lost our shape and our decision making was poor. It’s hard to explain. Now we need to pick ourselves back up for a quarterfinal against a good team.’