Edinburgh stunned by Italian try blitz
OLD habits came back to haunt Edinburgh as they collapsed to a Pro14 defeat to Zebre despite holding a ten-point advantage at half-time.
Richard Cockerill’s side travelled to Italy on a high after recording one of the best results of his spell in charge with a 40-14 thrashing of Toulon in the Heineken Champions Cup at Murrayfield last weekend. But the exasperating inconsistency that has plagued this team over the years reared its head again as an abject second-half performance saw them fall to a fourth league defeat in seven games.
Darcy Graham’s try had given Edinburgh a 13-3 lead at the interval but Zebre fought back with a four-try blitz to secure a bonus-point victory. Cockerill refused to blame the defeat on the absence of his Scotland stars and told his players to take responsibility for an abject second-half display.
‘We’re not going to accept that level of performance,’ he said. ‘If you get beaten you get beaten, but you’ve got to put your best game out on the field and, in the second half, some guys let themselves down.
‘We played well enough in that first half to control the game and were a good enough side to win the game. You can’t drop off tackles, not catch kicks, let them bounce so they score. You can’t throw intercepts when you know they are going to be high in the defensive line. All these things you have to take responsibility for.’
Cockerill made ten changes to the team that blew away Toulon, with nine players unavailable due to Scotland commitments.
Several new faces featured in Parma, with lock Jamie Hodgson earning his competitive debut from the start and Pietro Ceccarelli, Callum Atkinson and Mungo Mason debuting off the bench.
It took just six minutes for the visitors to go in front through Simon Hickey’s boot after a period of hard ball carrying from the Scottish pack yielded a penalty.
The Italian line was then breached when centre Chris Dean raced through a gap and delivered a neat offload over his shoulder to send Graham under the posts.
Hickey added the extras to give the visitors a ten-point lead, which they increased further five minutes later when the Kiwi stand-off again capitalised on a penalty by delivering the goods from the kicking tee.
Zebre got their first points just before the break courtesy of Carlo Canna after the Scots failed to release during a rare foray into the Edinburgh half.
The visitors filed into the tunnel at half-time having dominated possession and territory, but with ten points separating the sides the contest was far from over.
Within just a minute of the restart Zebre lock David Sisi wheeled out of the grasp of Callum Hunter-Hill to surge over the line. Canna applied the extras to make it a three-point game again with almost the entire second half still to play.
Edinburgh earned a penalty within kicking range, which Hickey converted to take his tally for the night to 11 points. But Zebre reduced the deficit to three points within minutes through Canna’s boot as the penalty count racked up.
The hosts’ refusal to drop out of the game was rewarded as they took the lead for the first time on 55 minutes. Canna’s kick looked to be heading safely into the hands of Dougie Fife, but he allowed the ball to bounce — and it rebounded into the hands of Gabriele di Giulio, who raced through to put the Italians in front. Canna added the conversion to give them a four-point lead.
Canna extended their advantage further with seven minutes left, pouncing on Hickey’s pass to score an interception try and adding the extras himself.
Zebre secured the bonus point as Tommaso Castello scampered over the whitewash with the final play of the game; Canna landing a tricky conversion to add to Edinburgh’s misery. SCORERS: ZEBRE — Tries: Sisi, di Giulio, Canna, Castello. Cons: Canna (4). Pens: Canna (2). EDINBURGH — Try: Graham. Con: Hickey. Pens: Hickey (2), Schoeman.