Ruthless Edinburgh rout sorry Russians
EDINBURGH warmed up for their double header against Glasgow Warriors in record-breaking fashion last night with a thumping victory over hopelessly mismatched Russians Krasny Yar.
There were 12 tries from 11 players overall at Murrayfield as the capital outfit scored their highest tally of points in the professional era.
Questions will be asked about what is to be gained from the battering of such lowly opposition in the Challenge Cup, but Richard Cockerill’s men could only beat what was in front of them and have now secured four wins out of four in this tournament to be all but assured of a last-eight place.
It was also Edinburgh’s eighth victory out of nine in all competitions and, in December alone, they’ve run in 176 points so far, with 48 coming against the Southern Kings, 50 against London Irish and 78 here.
Dave Rennie’s men are lying in wait in the Pro14, but Cockerill will have been pleased his men didn’t slacken off.
Two tries from South African winger Duhan van der Merwe on his home debut put him in the reckoning for a starting spot against the Warriors, while man-of-the-match Blair Kinghorn had a run-out at stand-off.
With Duncan Weir and Jason Tovey set to miss the derby next week, it will be interesting to see who Cockerill goes for at ten against Finn Russell.
The hosts were dealt a blow when stand-off Jaco van der Walt was ruled out through illness.
That presented an opportunity for young Kinghorn, normally a full-back, to step into the pivotal position and he did a good job of leading the attack in this painfully one-sided affair.
Edinburgh set the tone with a try after just two minutes, van der Merwe showing good strength to go over on the left.
Cockerill’s men kept up the pressure and try number two came in the 13th minute when a good scrum saw the ball passed out to centre Chris Dean, who went in under the posts.
Viktor Arhip, the Krasny Yar back-row, was then yellow-carded as things went from bad to worse for the visitors.
Edinburgh had the bonus point wrapped up before the end of the first quarter after a try in the 17th minute from second-row Lewis Carmichael and then another two minutes later from back-row Jamie Ritchie. Kinghorn, who converted five first-half tries, continued his fine showing with a try of his own from 45 metres.
With the game in the bag after 22 minutes, it was now just a case of the players using the rest of the match to impress Cockerill ahead of their back-to-back derbies with Glasgow.
Arhip returned, his side having conceded three converted tries while he was off. Even with 15 against 15, however, this was an embarrassing mismatch.
Try number six came just on the half-hour mark when Kinghorn managed to wriggle free of some poor defending to set off from the halfway line and set up scrum-half Sean Kennedy to go over from fully 35 metres out.
And with three minutes to go before the interval, the seventh try came courtesy of Neil Cochrane for a 47-0 half-time scoreline
The only blip was that Kinghorn lost his 100-per-cent kicking record with a missed conversion.
Edinburgh made three changes at half-time, No 8 Cornell du Preez one of those getting a rest ahead of the festive derbies, but it didn’t disrupt the flow.
Full-back Darcy Graham got the eighth try and, although it was unconverted, the capital men had crashed through the half-century.
Kinghorn was taken off after 44 minutes with Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, usually a stand-off, replacing him at ten. The game entered a lull after the onslaught, Krasny Yar throwing caution to the wind and attacking for the first time.
They had little success, but it slowed down Edinburgh’s scoring spree and the hosts made a few silly mistakes.
Normal service was resumed, though, when a nice cross-field kick from Hidalgo-Clyne resulted in a touchdown for winger Damien Hoyland. Try number ten arrived in the 65th minute for replacement centre Junior Rasolea.
There was still time for another from replacement hooker Cammy Fenton before van der Merwe got his second to end the rout.
Edinburgh assistant Roddy Grant said: ‘It was great to score so many points but the most pleasing thing was the shut-out.
‘Having won eight out of nine, it gives us selection headaches ahead of Glasgow. Blair Kinghorn did a good job at ten — he showed a lot of quality there.’ SCORERS: EDINBURGH — Tries: Van der Merwe (2), Dean, Carmichael, Ritchie, Kinghorn, Kennedy, Cochrane, Graham, Hoyland, Rasolea, Fenton. Cons: Kinghorn (6), Hidalgo-Clyne (3).