We’re alive and kicking
No regrets says Blair as side denied Euro home tie
MIKE BLAIR was glad Henry Pyrgos kicked the ball dead at the end of last night’s Champions Cup clash – despite Edinburgh needing to score again to secure a home draw in the last 16.
With both teams tied in Pool A on league points and points difference, Saracens finished higher ranked because they scored more tries over the four pool matches.
That means the English side will host Ospreys in the first round of knockout matches at the end of March, while the Gunners face a much trickier challenge away to Leicester Tigers.
But Blair said: “We wanted them to kick it off. We made that call. You don’t always get these things right but our view was we had Sam Skinner in the sin-bin, we were playing into a stiff breeze and we had no momentum in our attack.
“We felt Saracens had the momentum in the last 10 minutes. So the decision was we had won three of our four Champions Cup games and beating Saracens, who’d only lost one of their last 16, would give us a boost.
“We’d have loved a home game but we felt the odds were stacked against us, so we cashed in. We were aware of the situation and we are comfortable taking the win.”
Blair insisted the team will embrace the opportunity they now have to claim another major scalp when they visit Welford Road – one of the iconic grounds of European club rugby – in just over a month.
He added: “Playing a European tie, a knockout game, at Leicester is brilliant for the club.”
Edinburgh took a third-minute lead through a Dave Cherry try, which was converted by Blair Kinghorn who slotted a penalty soon after to make it 10-0.
But despite commanding 71 per cent of possession during the first half, they didn’t manage to score again in the opening 40.
That was despite Saracens losing hooker Jamie George and tighthead prop Marco Riccioni to the sin-bin for high tackles.
Instead, Saracens managed to pull it back to a four-point game by the break thanks to two Andy Goode penalties.
Kinghorn and Goode exchanged penalties at the start of the second half before Blair’s side stretched clear again with a converted try by man-of-the-match Pierre Schoeman.
But Saracens kept battling away and eventually got their reward with a Ben Earl try that secured the home draw in the next round.