Edinburgh steal the show and tame the giants
HOW quickly things change. A couple of weeks ago, no-one would have been surprised if Edinburgh’s contribution to the RBS Six Nations Championship squad was at a historic low.
Now they have loads of players making a case to swap the red-and-black shirt for dark blue.
All that despite Willem Nel’s comeback from injury lasting only 27 minutes before he was knocked silly while trying to tackle George Merrick, the big Harlequins lock, and taken off the pitch with concussion.
He will probably make the Scotland squad on reputation but, if he misses the final European Challenge Cup pool game when Edinburgh open their Myreside tenure on Friday against Timisoara Saracens – as could happen – then it would be a gamble to start him against Ireland with so little rugby in the past three months.
Elsewhere, however, the team was packed with players making a case for Vern Cotter to have a good look before deciding on the Scotland squad.
Duncan Weir reminded him that if you want Mr Steady at fly-half then he is your man, with a lot of shrewd tactical kicking to add to his 100 per cent record off the tee.
Outside him, Blair Kinghorn and Damien Hoyland both showed how dangerous they are when they can find space, with Kinghorn also looking secure and confident under the high ball.
The big positives, however, were up front. Ben Toolis, who has been the forgotten man among the Scottish second rows, was superb in the line-out with some key steals and he carried well. The whole back row tackled ferociously, with Hamish Watson pretty much securing his squad spot with a man-of-the-match performance at openside flanker.
“There were loads of good performances out there today,” he said modestly. “It is not so much about the man of the match award – it is great to get it – but it is more about the team. We will see what Vern does when the squad is announced [on Wednesday]. We were on top from the word go. We stuck to our game plan, to win the territory battle, and then we attacked well when we were in their half. The forwards did great in the set-piece and the front five all did really well in the ball.”
Two of the back row combined to secure the try that turned out to be decisive with Cornell Du Preez, a late addition to the Scotland squad in November, producing the offload to put Watson racing away from the halfway line. The flanker made to within 20 metres of the goal line before the defence caught up with him and his offload out of the tackle to Allan Dell, the prop, sent him sprinting over the line.
“I didn’t see it. I was falling down. But it was a good try and great play by Cornell before that,” said Watson.
“Dell is one of the quickest through the gates, even though he is a prop forward. Everyone saw how well he did in the autumn. He is having a really good season.”
Fraser McKenzie got the other with an outrageous sidestep to take him clear after Kinghorn had set up the attack with Weir kicking the rest of the points.
Though this was a Challenge Cup game, it was still against one of the top English sides whose only defeat at home in the past 10 months was to the New Zealand Maori in a November friendly.
In advance, as Watson admitted, few outside the Edinburgh squad had given them much chance but in reality they won a lot more comfortably than the scoreline suggests, with the team switching off in the dying seconds to concede two quickfire tries to Mat Luamanu and Joe Gray, two of the forward replacements.
By then, Edinburgh knew they couldn’t lose, and if they collect the expected five points at home to Timisoara on Friday night they will top the pool and almost certainly earn a home quarter-final.
Next weekend’s results will decide who Edinburgh’s opponents would be.
It looks as though they will finish third or fourth seeds, which brings teams like Bath, Brive, La Rochelle, Cardiff and even Harlequins into the frame.
“If you can get a good European cup run going then it builds momentum into the Guinness Pro12 and keeps a buzz around the squad,” said Watson.
“If we can get that home quarter-final, then hopefully we can push on and get a semi. There is a massive focus.
“We have not spoken about the final. We are just trying to get out of this group.”
Harlequins:
M Brown; M Yarde, A Alofa (M Hopper, 56), J Marchant, C Walker; T Swiel (R Jackson, 57), D Care (C) (K Dickson, 68); D Murphy (A Jones, 57), R Buchanan (J Gray, 70), K Sinckler (sin bin: 50-60), G Merrick (M Luamanu, 57), C Matthews, J Chisholm (sin bin: 28-38, L Wallace, 57), D Ward (M Shields, 58-60, sin bin: 70-end], J Clifford.
B Kinghorn; D Hoyland, C Dean, P Burleigh (M Allen, 74), T Brown; D Weir (J Tovey, 70), S Kennedy (S Hidalgo-Clyne, 68); A Dell (J Cosgrove, 70), R Ford (C) (N Cochrane, 57), WP Nel (S Berghan, 27), F McKenzie (L Carmichael, 68), B Toolis, M Bradbury, H Watson, C Du Preez (V Mata, 64). D Wilkinson (Ireland)
8,864
Edinburgh: Referee: Attendance: