The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Edinburgh home in on play-off spot
Edinburgh maintained their unbeaten home run in all competitions when they claimed a well-deserved 41-14 Guinness Pro14 bonus-point win over Connacht in tricky conditions at BT Murrayfield.
It keeps Richard Cockerill’s men at the top of Conference B and on track for a play-off spot.
The hosts recorded penalty tries and touchdowns by Simon Berghan, Pierre Schoeman and Duhan Van Der Merwe, plus three conversions and two penalties from Simon Hickey. For the visitors, Tiernan O’Halloran bagged a double and Jack Carty added both conversions.
Spillages in the opening few minutes offered an insight into the problems created by tricky overhead conditions, and the slow start continued with a lengthy interruption while Connacht prop Finlay Bealham received treatment before leaving the field.
Edinburgh opened the scoring with two penalties by Hickey.
Matt Scott then broke from deep and beat five men on his way to the line. There was some doubt over the grounding and the television official confirmed that the Edinburgh centre had failed to touch down.
However, he had been thwarted illegally by Carty. The referee awarded a penalty try, sending the Connacht man to the sin bin.
With Carty preparing to return, Edinburgh finally took advantage of their numerical advantage. A penalty booted into touch five metres shy of the whitewash created the platform for a multi-phase attack that ended with Berghan crashing over and Hickey converting.
Connacht finished the half strongly and opted for the scrum from a close-range penalty.
Edinburgh managed to repel a series of pick and drive efforts before O’Halloran found a way over, and Carty converted.
Another close-range scrum led to an assault on the Edinburgh line that ended with O’Halloran blasting his way over for a second time and Carty again adding the extras.
However, the hosts responded with a fresh offensive and gave themselves some breathing space when Schoeman forced his way over between the posts and Hickey again added the extras.
That sparked a chase for a bonus-point try, and it came with 14 minutes to play. From a lineout in the Connacht 22, Edinburgh mounted a sustained attack that stretched the visitors’ defence, allowing Hickey to fire out a long pass to Van Der Merwe who went in at the corner.
Hickey maintained his flawless kicking record with the conversion but posted his first miss soon after when he slipped on the run-up to a penalty.
Home winger Eroni Sau was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle and was joined on the sidelines by team-mate Nick Haining and Connacht’s Eoghan Masterson after they had traded blows. The visitors were then also reduced to 13 after Conor Fitzgerald tripped Charlie Shiel.
However, that had no impact on the final outcome as, by then, Edinburgh had wrapped up the win with a second penalty try.