Capital city men win reach heady heights after hard-fought battle against Welsh

EDINBURGH are just a point off the top of PRO14 Conference B this morning thanks to this victory, but they had to work hard against a dogged Dragons side who have toughened up a lot this season under former Scotland assistant coach Dean Ryan.

Munster and Scarlets have a game in hand on Richard Cockerill’s side and if they both win that will send Edinburgh down to third; nonetheless, this was an important result and performance the week before the Challenge Cup begins. With John Barclay and Ben Toolis starting for the first time since the World Cup and three of their colleagues from coming off the bench, Edinburgh are now back to pretty much full strength. They still need to rediscover some sharpness, but in the circumstances this was a mature and relatively composed display which augurs well for the European campaign.

“We deserved to win,” said Cockerill. “You can’t be too sad when you win, but we need to be better.

“Credit to them, they played well and made it hard for us. We struggled to break them down. We’ll have better days, but you can’t be too downbeat when you win. We were a little bit flat tonight – I don’t know why, because it’s been a good training week.”

Sam Davies missed a chance to give the Welsh side an early lead with a penalty from out wide, and although the visitors retained the upper hand for a while, Edinburgh’s defence at the breakdown was more than a match for them, with Pierre Schoeman and Luke Crosbie being particularly effective. At the other end, the home pack thought they had scored from a lineout maul after a penalty was sent to touch, but the referee had called for a second stop and gave Dragons a scrum.

The penalty had been right in front of the posts, so one way or the other it was a chance squandered, but Edinburgh quickly made amends in similar circumstances. This time the ball came back from the lineout maul, and with too many defenders having been drawn in, Blair Kinghorn had ample space to slice through the defence for the first try of the night, converted by Simon Hickey.

Davies’ second attempt at goal crashed back off an upright as Dragons struggled to find a foothold, while Edinburgh continued to defend patiently. An excellent kick chase out of defence saw Cockerill’s team awarded a penalty, which again went to touch only for the lineout maul to fail well short of the lineout.

Some variety in attack appeared to be needed, and five minutes before the break it arrived when Edinburgh opted to scrum a penalty in front of the opposition posts. The first one went down; they scrummed again. The second one led to a drive that was halted illegally, and this time, perhaps remembering the futile six-minute slog just before the break at Benetton a week earlier, they went for the penalty. Hickey made no mistake to take the score at the break to 10-0.

Very soon after the restart it seemed that had increased to 15-0 as Matt Scott barged through on an angle, but Mike Willemse’ pass had gone forward so the score was chalked off. That was at worst a minor setback, but a more perilous one came when Toolis was yellowcarded for blocking full-back Jordan Williams on a counter-attack. Within minutes, Dragons had mounted their most threatening attack of the game, but Edinburgh were again equal to the task, with Schoeman and Scott combining this time to snuff out the danger.

By the time Dragons blindside Huw Taylor was sinbinned for repeated offences, Edinburgh had wound down the clock deep in enemy territory. Hickey added three points from the penalty, and it looked like the home team were close to sewing up the points. Instead, Dragons hit back with their first score of the night, a simple move from a scrum that saw Sam Davies put Adam Warren through on an angle. Davies converted, and the game was wide open as it went into its final quarter.

Simon Berghan had come off the bench by that time, and he was joined by World Cup colleagues Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie as Edinburgh tried to reimpose their dominance and take advantage of the few minutes in which they were a man up. The impact was immediate: a powerful drive took the forwards through the middle, then when the ball was spun wide, Kinghorn and Ritchie combined to put Duhan van der Merwe in at the left corner. Hickey converted.

Magnus Bradbury lost control just short of the line as try No.3 appeared to be in his grasp, but it did not matter by then as Dragons had no time and less energy in which to mount a fightback.

THE Premiership returns from its three-week break this afternoon, and leaders Marr know there is now no room for error at the top, with only one point separating them and Currie Chieftains.

The first six weeks of the league campaign had been plain sailing for the Fullarton Park club, but they could only draw at home to Edinburgh Accies last time out.

That result, combined with the Chieftains’ thumping win in a rearranged game last weekend against Aberdeen Grammar, has meant Craig Redpath’s side are under some real pressure for the first time, and the coach expects a through examination this afternoon when his team travel to Balgray to take on Glasgow Hawks.

“After a week off we have returned to training and prepared well for a tough physical challenge against Glasgow Hawks,” Redpath said. “After a tough start to the season they had a great away win at Hawick last time out, so we will have to be at our best to get a win as they will be hoping to build momentum and move up the table.”

The Hawks coach Andy Hill, meanwhile, is aware that his own team will have to excel if they are to pick up a third win of the season.

“Marr are unbeaten and will be on a high after Scott Bickerstaff’s selection in the Scotland Sevens squad,” he said, while praising the feat.

“Well done and well deserved from all at Hawks and it shows players can still transition into professional rugby from the Premiership.

“We need to put together an 80-minute performance that will test a formidable team. I am really looking forward to the challenge and how our boys front up.”

Fresh from that 57-3 win over Aberdeen, Currie aim to keep up the pressure on Marr by getting a result at Jed-Forest, and are boosted by the return to the pack of captain Mike Vernel.

“Last week was our most complete performance of this season,” Chieftains coach Mark Cairns said of a match that was far more one-sided than had been expected.

“The challenge now is to consistently perform at that level and central to this was the way we looked after the ball in tricky conditions.

“We know that anything less than our best will not be good enough to beat a Jed team whose last defeat at home was back in the second week of the season.”

Jed have former Scotland Sevens player Fraser Harkness back on the bench, but consistency of selection has been a problem for their coach Gavin Kerr.

“We’re being hit by quite a few injuries, which is not making things easier for our set piece and for setting up a platform to play off, but the team are looking forward to playing at home,” he said.

After their demoralising defeat at Malleny Park, thirdplaced Aberdeen will bid to inject new life into their title challenge at home to a Hawick side who have struggled for consistency since making a bright start to the season.

Unsurprisingly after seeing his team ship more than a halfcentury of points, Grammar coach Ali O’Connor has emphasised the need for solid defence in training.

“Last week was a disjointed performance,” he said. “We know Hawick are a class act and have some real big ballcarriers in the team.

“We will need to front up defensively in a way that we didn’t manage to do last week in order to be competitive in this one.

“Hopefully home advantage and the long journey from the Borders works in our favour, but we know we are in for a really tough game.”

GHA are just a point behind the play-off places in fifth, and their visit to bottom club Musselburgh has to be seen as a real opportunity to make up ground on the quartet above them.

The team keeping GHA out of the top four at the moment are Selkirk, who are at home to Edinburgh Accies in what could be the closest game on the card. Accies are six points adrift of the Borderers but have a game in hand, so a win here would be a serious boost to their bid to catch up on the pace-setters in the division.