Cockerill’s magnificent men come of age

EDINBURGH head coach Richard Cockerill believes their thumping of Toulon is the start of his team coming of age.

The Scots, who had picked up a losing bonus point at Montpellier in round one, were superb from start to finish at BT Murrayfield to blow away the French giants with a bonus point in the bag.

“We spoke all week about this team coming of age and hopefully this is the start,” Cockerill said.

“I think it will be hard for us to come out of this group but we will give it a good shot.

“We were really decisive and we were the better team. We should be proud of that, but now we need to build on that.”

After four minutes a good break by centre Matt Scott earned Edinburgh a penalty which stand-off Jaco van der Walt converted.

Second-row Gilchrist then had to go off for an HIA, but the home pack got on with their job and some pick and goes eventually saw Ben Toolis go over for the try. Van der Walt converted to make it 10-0.

Gilchrist returned to the field, but it was the French side who were next on the scoresheet. Second-row Romain Taofifenua went over the line for the try with stand-off Anthony Belleau converting.

Three minutes later Edinburgh hit back with their second try and it was two men recalled to the Scotland squad this week that made it and scored it.

Scott was the catalyst with scrum-half Henry Pyrgos finishing off. Van der Walt converted for 17-7.

Three penalties from the South African No. 10 made it 26-7 to the hosts at halftime.

The game was all but over after 45 minutes when Edinburgh captain Stuart McInally bagged their third try which was converted to give them a 26 point lead.

Shell-shocked Toulon managed to score their second converted try of a daythrough replacement Daniel Ikpefan but Edinburgh fittingly had the last say with a bonus point try from Chris Dean.