Cockerill’s men begin in style with Irish rout
EDINBURGH head coach Richard Cockerill was delighted with his team as they began their European Rugby Challenge Cup campaign with a five-try victory at London Irish.
Junior Rasolea was on hand with a first-half brace as the Scottish raiders blew away a young Exiles side who haven’t won since September 2.
Cockerill was keen to heap the praise on his rotated team for a slick, bonus-point performance.
He said: ‘It’s a good start for us. We kept ourselves in the game and we defended very well when we needed to, which was really pleasing.
‘Away from home it’s always difficult. The logistics of travel from Edinburgh are tricky, there are a lot of distractions and a lot of down time.
‘But I was pleased with the application of the players and their ambition to play. We can be better, but there were nine changes in this team from last week.
‘That is a lot of changes and a lot of guys getting game time. We can look after our squad and be strong next week and then go on to Treviso and Ospreys in the Guinness Pro14.’
Before those two games, Edinburgh face a tough fixture away in Moscow next weekend against a Krasny Yar side who shocked last season’s Challenge Cup winners Stade Francais.
Cockerill admitted he and the squad are relishing a trip to icycold Russia, but know it won’t be an easy task.
‘We just need to make sure that we do our things right there,’ he added. ‘If we do that, we’ll be good enough to beat them. I’ve watched a little bit of footage of them and you’d like to think that if we’re anywhere near right, we’ll get a positive result.
‘But if you don’t go with the right attitude, you can get unstuck, as Stade did. We are going there to win, we’ll enjoy the experience and try and see the sights when we can.’
It was a sluggish start for Edinburgh in Reading with Jason Tovey’s penalty miss from a routine position setting the tone for a drab and lacklustre opening 20 minutes.
It was the hosts who took the lead through Theo Brophy-Clews’ penalty on nine minutes.
However, the visitors settled and soon asserted their control on proceedings. Damien Hoyland grabbed the game’s first try, wriggling his way through on 22 minutes, with Tovey this time on point from the tee.
Edinburgh were coming into their own and soon extended their lead. Rasolea — making his second start of the season — finishing off an excellent team move on 25 minutes.
The hosts came back into it five minutes later, with prop Ollie Hoskins benefiting from a pickand-drive phase, smashing his way over from close range.
Brophy-Clews rattled the uprights in front of the sticks.
Sam Hidalgo-Clyne then kicked a penalty at the other end, before Rasolea scored his second try of the game.
Brophy-Clews’ penalty ensured Irish kept in touch at the break and the stand-off booted another 14 minutes after the interval.
Hidalgo-Clyne responded with an effort of his own, which meant the hosts had to find two scores in the final 25 minutes.
Late on, Irish lost flanker Conor Gilsenan to the sin bin after an infringement at the breakdown and Edinburgh capitalised on having the extra man with Jamie Ritchie crossing to seal a deserved bonus point.
Hidalgo-Clyne added the conversion, before Luke Crosbie capped things off with try No 5.
Irish director of rugby Nick Kennedy praised Edinburgh for their killer instinct, saying: ‘It was difficult at the end for us and we conceded those two tries.
‘The scoreboard doesn’t lie, Edinburgh took their tries well. They had that period in the first half where they finished strongly.
‘We were very much in the game at times, but Edinburgh took their chances.’