Capital crowd bring the noise in historic victory
EDINBURGH head coach Mike Blair praised the raucous home crowd for getting behind his team when the going got tough against the Scarlets in the first-ever competitive match in their new custom-build stadium.
In what was Blair’s first league game as Edinburgh head coach, his side were on the ropes near the end as the Welsh visitors laboured to overturn a four-point deficit.
‘The crowd gave the players that little bit extra when it mattered,’ said Blair. ‘It was harder for Scarlets trying to get back into the game when you had our crowd in the background cheering the knock-ons, cheering the turnovers or cheering our good play.
‘I loved the attitude of the crowd and players like Jamie Ritchie and Conor Boyle trying to lift the crowd to bring them into it when it mattered near the end. That was very important as the players rose to that and that volume and level of support helped us get over the line.’
The 5,330 crowd erupted as one at the final whistle after an enthralling game full of attacking rugby.
Blair insisted it was not the perfect performance and his players would have to improve in time for their next United Rugby Championship outing against Benetton in Italy.
‘Winning a game like that against a top-class Scarlets team with a bonus point is great, but we have to learn from it,’ he said. ‘Was it the perfect start for me? Yes, in terms of the result, but no in terms of performance. We could have been smarter.
‘I thought we could have pushed the ball through the wide channels and made them exit a little bit more but we did not do that well, so we have to get better.’
Scrum-half Ben Vellacott and winger Darcy Graham, who scored two tries, were the main men for the home side. Although the experiment of playing Blair Kinghorn at fly-half ahead of specialist ten Jaco van der Walt wasn’t a complete success, he did score a try and helped set up one for Mark Bennett.
Defensively, Edinburgh leaked some soft tries but managed to hold on for a morale-boosting victory. Playing a much more attacking style of rugby under Blair than previous head coach Richard Cockerill ever did, it should not be long before the sold-out signs will be up at the 7,334-capacity stadium.
Things didn’t start well for the home side, with Ritchie dropping the ball straight from the kick-off, which set the tone for a number of early errors from both sides. That included a bad penalty miss from Scarlets fly-half Dan Jones, whose effort came back off the upright.
The visitors thought they had opened the scoring through centre Scott Williams after eight minutes but it was ruled out by referee Andrew Brace for a forward pass in the build-up.
They did take the lead in 11 minutes when great forward work from prop Samson Lee punctured the Edinburgh defence. The ball was recycled with Scarlets’ Scottish international flanker Blade Thomson playing the final pass out wide for winger Steff Evans to score.
The first contribution of Kinghorn, who was picked ahead of three specialist tens to start at fly-half, was to spill the ball to give the Welsh outfit the put-in at the scrum. It nearly proved costly as lock Aaron Shingler thought he had touched down but Brace, after watching the incident again on the screen, said there was no proper evidence he had grounded the ball and ruled it out.
Edinburgh finally gave the crowd something to shout about following some quick thinking from Vellacott, who took a quick tap penalty from inside his own 22.
His turn of pace left the Scarlets defence for dead and, when he did get rid of the ball, Kinghorn just failed to get on the end of his grubber kick.
Five minutes later, Kinghorn got on the scoresheet under the posts. Prop Pierre Schoeman stole the ball before feeding Vellacott, who got the ball away to Viliame Mata.
Kinghorn was next in line to take the pass and he ran under the posts unopposed after an exchange with Bennett. He also put over the extras.
Vellacott was on fire and was the provider for Edinburgh’s second try with his quick pass at the breakdown finding Bennett, who ran in to score under the posts which gave Kinghorn a simple conversion.
Four minutes before the break, Scarlets fly-half Dan Jones put over a penalty to keep his side in the hunt.
But Vellacott wasn’t finished yet. He won a turnover at the breakdown and fed Mata, who released Graham to score in the corner.
Scarlets winger Ryan Conbeer thought he had touched down in the corner six minutes after the interval but replays showed that Graham had forced him into touch.
The Welsh side kept up the pressure and were rewarded with a touchdown from scrum-half Kieran Hardy, who also put over the conversion.
Edinburgh kept throwing the ball around and added to their score on the hour mark when Graham ran in to score his second try. Kinghorn kicked the conversion.
With 15 minutes left, the Edinburgh defence was split open, which allowed full-back Johnny McNicholl to score. Sam Costelow put over the extras to cut the deficit to just four points.
With eight minutes left, Vellacott, who had a tremendous match, was replaced by Henry Prygos. Both sides looked nervous as the clock kicked on and, with two minutes left, Scarlets had a line-out near the Edinburgh line but the hosts turned it over, cleared their lines and held on for an important victory.
SCORERS; Edinburgh — Tries: Kinghorn, Bennett. Graham (2). Cons: Kinghorn (3).
Scarlets — Tries: S Evans, Hardy, McNicholl. Cons: Hardy, Costelow. Pen: D Jones.
Referee: Andrew Brace (England). Att: 5,330.