Cockerill hails a spirited showing from Edinburgh
EDINBURGH have not had their troubles to seek over the last few weeks with drink and drugs both rearing their ugly heads to undermine all the efforts going in to rebuilding the side.
So to come away to a tricky place like Treviso, stare down the barrel of defeat and bounce back to win shows just how much the confidence and quality in the side is growing.
This was a game they could well have lost but in the end they were disappointed that they only got four points from it — they felt five were on offer.
‘Our game is slowly developing and growing, though there is still a long way to go,’ said Richard Cockerill, the head coach afterwards. ‘This is a difficult place to come — just ask Toulon, who spend a considerable amount of money more than we do [and needed an 83rdminute penalty to win 30-29 in the European Champions Cup].
‘We are pleased with the win. We said five weeks ago we wanted to win the next five games, now we have won four and have Ospreys at home next week to finish it, we have to front up then again.’
For Cockerill, the most pleasing thing was the evidence that, slowly, confidence is beginning to seep into the side. There have been times when they would have expected to fold after a long period under pressure saw them caught and overtaken — just as happened in the reverse game at Myreside.
Only this time, they bounced back, not just managing two quickfire tries through Dougie Fife, the wing, but holding their collective nerve in a furious final assault from the Italians — preventing them collecting a losing bonus point as Blair Kinghorn capped a fine afternoon with a try-saving tackle.
They are on a roll anyway and got the perfect start when Kinghorn, the full-back, found space in the outside centre channel to break through.
With James Johnstone acting as the link, that was enough to earn the opening try for Sam Hidalgo-Clyne with less than three minutes gone.
They dominated the next 25 minutes from there on, but found it tough to add to their score, with a missed penalty from Jason Tovey included in the let-offs for the Italian side.
When the fly half added a searing break but lost the ball looking for a support runner, you wondered if it was going to be his afternoon.
Certainly, it was looking ominous for the Scots as they started to find the momentum turning against them despite the Italians having Francesco Minto, their flanker, sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. They started to build the pressure and were rewarded with two penalties, both kicked by Ian McKinley, the fly-half.
With one point splitting the teams at the break, Edinburgh needed a fast start to the second half, but were starting to find it hard to keep possession for long. The lineout had been an issue from the start and the scrum started to creak a bit as well.
That said, the try had more than an element of good fortune about it as Treviso got the luck of a rebound on the left wing to keep the move alive. Nothing lucky about the way they recycled and worked the space on the right, though, with Angelo Esposito, crossing.
Edinburgh’s riposte was instant. They attacked the kickoff, won a scrum and, when the ball was moved to the blindside, Kinghorn was there to suck in the defence and put Fife over.
Fifteen minutes later, he was at it again, this time exploiting space from a lineout drive and the potential banana skin had turned into a comfortable win.