Edinburgh put up brave fight in France but fall just short against Montpellier
IT wasn’t the three first-half tries that beat Edinburgh in their openi ng Champions Cup tie in Montpellier yesterday.
It wasn’t even two decisive calls from referee Wayne Barnes.
Instead, Edinburgh could feel hard-done-to that Barnes – eagle-eyed to spot Hamish Watson’s accidental off-side under the posts and Simon Berghan’s unintentional block on Vincent Giudicelli as Magnus Bradbury touched down – missed Kevin Kornath’s hand scooping the ball out of a ruck with Edinburgh in a great field position and with the clock ticking down.
“One hundred per cent we should have won it,” said Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill afterwards.
Cockerill, while trying to sound philosophical, must have been frustrated by his players. Having frozen Vern Cotter’s star-studded team out in terms of points, possession and territory after the interval, they flew home with just a bonus point.
“I’ve got nothing but credit to our guys,” Cockerill added. “We went behind to one good try at the start. Try two and three were pretty poor from us in turning the ball over. But we spoke about staying in the game at half time, and we should have scored a try.
“Bradbury should have scored but Berghan ran across his line and got all flustered in the heat of the moment. And it cost us.
“I’m very proud of the performance, but we can play better and we’ve got to work hard this week because we have to turn these opportunities into wins.”
While close at the end, the first half belonged to the home team, who set the scoreboard ticking over after just six minutes.
Ruan Pienaar, installed at standoff, worked an opening for Henry Immelman to crash over, Pienaar making it seven.
Edinburgh drew level after 20 minutes when Bill Mata’s brilliant offload was matched by Grant Gilchrist who sent Simon Hickey away. Henry Pyrgos on his shoulder was held up a few metres out, but a great clear-out by Dougie Fife enabled captain Stuart McInally to pick up and drop over.
With confidence restored, Edinburgh exerted some pressure. However, a couple of dropped passes halted Edinburgh’s momentum. It proved costly.
Benjamin Fall ran through Blair Kinghorn and Hickey and skipped away from the cover to score in the corner. Turnover ball was killing Edinburgh and, just before half time, the home fans were cheering a third try.
Giant lock Nico Janse van Rensburg galloped away, supported by his pack. Pienaar’s cross-kick found Gabriel Ngandebe in open field for a simple try.
With the clock red, Hickey nar- rowed the gap to 21-10 at the turnaround, both in terms of direction and flow of the game.
Matt Scott and Darcy Graham gained significant yardage, forcing Montpellier to go off-side. Needing tries, Edinburgh kicked for the corner but, yet again, coughed the ball up .
dinburgh camped themselvesE on the Montpellier line and Bismarck Du Plessis picked up a yellow card for killing the ball.
Edinburgh chose to scrum, not easy given the pitch by now looked like a ploughed field. With a man advantage, from a second scrum, the ball broke off Mata’s boot, only for Watson to be determined off-side by referee Barnes, in consultation with the video official, as he touched down.
Montpellier saw out their numerical disadvantage but, almost immediately, Dougie Fife scored, Watson, Kinghorn and the gifted Mata, with a spin and off-load, setting up the Edinburgh winger.
For a second, against the odds, it appeared as if Edinburgh were going to go ahead.
But, as Pyrgos fed inside, intended for Bradbury, prop Berghan blocked Vincent Giudicelli from making a tackle, and referee Barnes ruled out the score for obstruction.
It was a hammer blow to Edinburgh’s hopes, as was Kornath’s blatant handling offence, missed by Barnes and his touch judges. Scorers, Montpellier – Tries: Immelman, Fall, Ngandebe. Cons: Pienaar 3.
Edinburgh – Tries: McInally, Fife. Con: Hickey. Pen: Hickey
Montpellier: Immelman; Fall, Martin (Tomas 77), Serfontein, Ngandebe (Reilhac 67); Pienaar, Sanga (Dumoulin 40); Nariashvili (Fichton 61), B Du Plessis (Giudicelli 63), J Du Plessis Guillamon (40), Van Rensburg (Kornath 75), Willemse, Ouedraogo, Liebenberg (Galletier 63), Picamoles (capt). Replacements: Dumoulin.
Edinburgh: Kinghorn; Graham, Johnstone, Scott (Dean 72), Fife; Hickey (van der Walt 56), Pyrgos (Kennedy 72); Dell (Sutherland 62), McInally (Ford 40), Nel (Berghan), Toolis, Gilchrist, Bradbury, Watson (Ritchie 65), Mata (Hamilton 67)
Ref: W Barnes