The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Edinburgh thump Krasny on record-breaking night
Cockerill’s men more or less secure last eight spot after bagging 12 tries at Murrayfield
edinburgh 78 krasny yar 0
Edinburgh are all but assured of a place in the European Challenge Cup quarterfinals thanks to a club record 78-0 thumping of Russian visitors Krasny Yar at BT Murrayfield last night.
Richard Cockerill’s men bagged 12 tries – with 11 different players getting on the scoresheet – to become the only Challenge Cup team to take maximum points from every fixture.
Edinburgh had hammered Krasny 74-13 in Russia during October – but the victory was even more resounding this time as the Scots set new records for the number of points, margin of victory and number of tries scored.
Assistant coach Roddy Grant was thrilled by both the result and the performance against the Russians who, despite beating Stade Francais on the opening weekend of the Challenge Cup, were excruciatingly out of their depth.
He told BBC Sport: “It’s quite difficult at half-time to be that far up and it was just pleasing the guys came out and played in the second half like they did in the first.
“Probably the most pleasing thing is nilling them. We conceded two tries in Russia which was frustrating.
“The big focus really was getting a result in terms of the points out of the game – getting five points hugely helps us going forward.
“We’ve tried to attack when we can and with the amount of tries we’ve scored it has been good or better.
“The style Richard Cockerill is driving seems to have been working for us, but we’re really happy with where it’s going.”
In front of a tiny home crowd at Murrayfield, Edinburgh scored in the opening minute and barely stopped thereafter as the scoreboard threatened to self-combust.
South African winger Duhan van der Merwe, on his home debut, opened the floodgates and Chris Dean and Lewis Carmichael followed him over the try line minutes later, with Blair Kinghorn adding the conversions.
Russian open-side Viktor Arhip was lost to the bin as Krasny collapsed, allowing further scores from Jamie Ritchie, Kinghorn and Sean Kennedy
Hooker Neil Cochrane then cantered home to score the seventh Edinburgh try.
Young Darcy Graham brought up the half-century before Sam HidalgoClyne put Damien Hoyland through for number nine.
Junior Rasolea then made it 10 and 33 and Cockerill’s men coasted past the 70-point mark when replacement hooker Cammy Fenton crashed over, followed by further scores from Hidalgo-Clyne and Van der Merwe.