MANN: IT’S NOT THE FAREWELL WE’D PLANNED
ALEX Mann says Cardiff’s players are hurting after they were unable to give some of their departing stars a victory on their Arms Park send-off.
Ellis Jenkins and Josh Turnbull are both retiring from the game, while Tomos Williams and Rhys Carre are joining English clubs ahead of next season.
Coach Richie Rees is also moving on, while there are bound to be others moving on in the summer.
Turnbull and Williams didn’t feature against Edinburgh, while Jenkins was forced off early on.
Carre crossed for a second-half try but it wasn’t enough as the Scottish side came out on top.
“It’s disappointing, especially with Ellis and Carre’s last game, and Richie as well, at home,” said Wales international Mann.
“That was the disappointing bit for us and it does hurt.
“We’ve just got to focus on the next games.
“I know it’s a cliche but we can’t let the season fizzle out, so we’ve got to focus on these games because every game counts building into next season.
“Sometimes the other team is just better on the day and to be fair I think that was the case.
“We knew we had to stand up physically to them and there were some big boys coming towards us so it was difficult to recover.
“I felt like our attack, if a few passes had stuck, would have been a different story.
“But that’s how it is. That’s rugby and you can’t always get it perfect.”
The first half was a low-scoring affair, with just the one try in the first 40 minutes.
It came when some patient work by the visitors led to Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman forcing his way over from close range 27 minutes into the contest.
After the break, Cardiff got back into proceedings. Buoyed by Duhan van der Merwe’s yellow card for a high tackle on Theo Cabango, they levelled the scores with a wellworked try of their own.
From a line-out, a neat move saw Saracens-bound prop Carre mark his second Arms Park farewell with one last reminder of what he can do, crashing over for a try on the day that he admitted his departure was down to being overlooked by Wales.
Cardiff might have forged ahead after Mann nearly put Mason Grady away with a superb long pass, only for van der Merwe – back from the bin – to catch up to the Wales international and deny him a score.
As the match entered the final quarter, the away side took control with Ewan Ashman scoring from the back of a maul to restore Edinburgh’s lead.
Ben Healy’s penalty moved them further ahead, before Boan Venter’s try with four minutes left made sure of victory.