Edinburgh sting Bath to ensure it’s Wasps in quarters
Edinburgh last night recovered from a shaky start to run out comfortable winners – by six tries to two – against a star-studded Bath side to book their place in the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup.
They now face another English side in Wasps, back at the DAM Health Stadium, on the weekend of May 6-8 in the last eight.
Bath flew out the blocks to take the lead inside two minutes when England international flanker Sam Underhill muscled over and up-and-coming stand-off Orlando Bailey slotted the fairly straight-forward conversion.
Bailey had an opportunity to push Bath further ahead on eight minutes but he pulled his
penalty effort to the left of the posts.
Then Edinburgh burst right back into the game when Blair Kinghorn shrugged off a tackle in midfield and then timed his pass perfectly to send Emiliano Boffelli on an unchallenged canter to the line.
The Argentinean flyer couldn’t add the conversion to his own score but kicked a penalty a few minutes later to edge the hosts into a one-point lead.
But the capital men then failed to deal with the restart and conceded a penalty, then failed to clear the danger when Bailey’s shot at goal hit the woodwork.
They paid the price when quick-thinking Underhill spotted that the ball had touched the try-line as it was pushed back at a ruck, meaning he was free to dive in from the side and score.
The home fans might not have liked it, but the Bath and England flanker was perfectly entitled to snatch that opportunity.
To their credit, Edinburgh didn’t let that setback dampen their spirits, and they burst back into the lead when Kinghorn broke from midfield and turned on the afterburners to touch down under the posts – setting up an easy conversion for Boffelli.
But Bath had the final say of the first half, with scrumhalf Ben Spencer scrambled over from close range, then converted himself to make it 19-15 to the visitors at the break.
The first 10 minutes of the second half was a game of cat and mouse, with neither side attacking with quite the same conviction as they had shown in the first half, before the game burst back into life with home cult hero Pierre Schoeman at the heart of the action.
He started the move with barn-storming run up the middle of the park, featured again with another powerful surge a few phases later, and then popped up a third time to score the try.
Once again, Boffelli was on the money with his conversion, and the mood out on the pitch and in the stands lifted a notch.
Schoeman, in particular, was clearly up for it, buzzing round the park at breakneck speed and firing into contact like a man possessed.
With 18 minutes to play, Kinghorn sent out a pass which skimmed along the artificial surface before bouncing up neatly into Jaco van der Walt’s arms, who timed his pass well to release Boffelli.
The winger still had work to do, but managed to make the line and convert himself – which broke Bath’s hearts.
Mark Bennett went over to stretch Edinburgh further ahead, and it didn’t matter that Boffelli missed the conversion because the contest was over.
Connor Boyle – just on the park for Hamish Watson – burst clear to score Edinburgh’s sixth try with three minutes to go.