Watson raps blundering Edinburgh

Hamish Watson has slammed the “stupid errors” that saw Edinburgh Rugby bundled out of Europe, all but ending their season.

The 25-year-old back-row was once again superb against La Rochelle at BT Murrayfield and still has a chance of going on the British & Irish Lions tour. But the team conceded four tries in the first half and lost 32-22.

The last-eight Challenge Cup defeat leaves them with just four PRO12 league matches left before new head coach Richard Cockerill takes over.

Watson said: “We didn’t perform very well in the first half at all. We managed to get things back to 14-7 but then we did not exit properly and they scored straight away again.

“We gave away a few stupid and easy tries and that left us with too much to do in the second half.

“People may say that the season is over for us but we are proud people and we have to get our heads up and focus on the final matches.”

Watson scored one of Edinburgh’s tries against La Rochelle while Phil Burleigh and Ross Ford also went over but the disastrous first half an hour left the side with a mountain to climb.

Acting head coach Duncan Hodge said: “Everything we had talked about not doing during the week, we did in the first 20 minutes and that gave La Rochelle easy tries.

“I feel a bit like a broken record and the guys have to learn quickly.”