Alasdair’s return ends in anguish
Alasdair dickinson’s hopes of a scotland recall for next weekend’s Calcutta Cup clash look to have been dashed after he was carried off on a stretcher during Edinburgh’s Pro12 defeat to the Ospreys last night.
The 33-year-old needed treatment on the pitch after a recurrence of a foot injury before leaving the pitch surrounded by medics while in obvious pain.
The prop lasted just 49 minutes of his first match after ten weeks out due to an injury to the same foot.
scotland head coach Vern Cotter has made no secret at his concern at the lack of depth at loosehead, with neither allan dell nor Gordon reid impressing thus far.
The Kiwi had hoped dickinson, who has 58 caps, could have made the bench if he had proved his fitness against the Welsh outfit. instead, Cotter now faces starting either reid or dell against a strong England front row at Twickenham.
Back-row forward Magnus Bradbury was another who saw his hopes of being called up to Cotter’s squad for the penultimate six Nations match dealt a major blow.
The flanker was in the mix along with david denton to replace Josh strauss, who has been ruled out of the rest of the six Nations with a kidney problem. But the way he hobbled off the park against the Ospreys suggests his chances of being fit for the game a week today have also ended.
losing two of their key players was part of a dismal night for the home side, who fell to their fifth consecutive Pro12 defeat.
Edinburgh took the lead through a duncan Weir penalty, awarded after good work by dickinson at the scrum, with his pressure on Brian Mujati forcing the Ospreys player to collapse the set-piece.
The three-point advantage did not last for long, however, with sam davies levelling the scores with a perfect long-range penalty after a high tackle from Bradbury.
Ospreys then surged ahead through a superb try from centre Josh Matavesi, made by davies.
The Welsh fly-half cut through the Edinburgh defence before playing a clever reverse pass to the Fijian international, who ran between the posts. The extras from davies gave the visitors a deserved lead.
The Welsh side started to turn the screw and only solid defence, including a vital tackle from Weir, stopped them from increasing their lead.
Edinburgh’s handling was poor, with both Cornell du Preez and Bradbury clumsily dropping the ball in contact when their team was in good attacking positions.
lock forward Ben Toolis, who was one of the few Edinburgh players to earn pass-marks up until that point, had to go off injured just before half-time, which didn’t help their cause.
The home side enjoyed their best spell of the half as the break approached with damien Hoyland being held up just short.
Yet again, though, when the ball was recycled, another handling error by Edinburgh meant the chance was squandered.
dickinson made his presence felt at the ruck and was unlucky to have the ball knocked out of his hand as he tried to wriggle out of a tackle.
That gave Edinburgh a bit of confidence, so much so that rather than take a simple penalty, Weir decided to kick for the corner and go for the try. From the line-out drive, Edinburgh were stopped just short of the Ospreys’ line.
From the next phase of attacking play, the Welsh were caught offside, but it came at the considerable cost of dickinson’s injury after he became trapped under a pile of bodies.
Edinburgh then suffered another blow when Bradbury — who was competing with Bath’s denton for a call-up — hobbled off with an ankle injury.
Weir cut the deficit to four points, but davies then put over a penalty for the Ospreys before Weir put on another three points for the home side.
That set up a grandstand finish, with Edinburgh finally starting to put the ball through some phases.
But it turned out to be too little, too late as the home side ultimately failed to perform to their potential once again. SCORERS: Edinburgh; Tries — None, Cons — None, Pens — Weir (3). Ospreys; Try — Matavesi, Con — S Davies, Pens — S Davies (2).