Hodge’s fury as Edinburgh rack up painful eight
EDINBURGH crashed to their eighth straight Guinness Pro12 defeat last night despite a spirited second-half fightback at Myreside.
Looking down and out at 22-0 after 60 minutes, they set up a thrilling finish after scoring three tries in the final quarter of the match.
As in last week’s European Challenge Cup defeat to La Rochelle, however, they had ultimately given themselves too much of a mountain to climb.
Acting head coach Duncan Hodge could not hide his frustration at the end.
‘We were way behind after an hour which was down to us making too many errors, and giving away too many penalties and turnovers in the first half,’ he said. ‘We gave ourselves far too much to do late on and couldn’t catch them.’
The end of the season now can’t come quickly enough, and defeat again showed how big a rebuilding job Richard Cockerill has when he takes over in the summer.
Connacht are very much a mid-table side but initially had too much for the hosts.
In truth, the only real class player on the field was Connacht centre Bundee Aki, and Edinburgh had had no answer to his strong running and ability to break through tackles.
The only home player to receive pass marks was Scottish flanker Hamish Watson, who helped lead the fightback with Edinburgh’s second try after they had been awarded a penalty try by Welsh referee Daniel Jones.
Full-back Glenn Bryce set up a storming finish with his late touchdown but the visitors held on.
In the early stages, Duncan Weir missed a penalty for the hosts before Steve Crosbie kicked Connacht ahead.
Edinburgh were on top for the next 20 minutes but poor handling let them down.
First, Weir knocked on near the try line, then Chris Dean made a similar mistake that allowed the visitors to clear the danger.
Once again, the home side were made to pay by Crosbie, who put his side further ahead with another penalty from just inside the Edinburgh half.
The Irish side were now playing with some confidence, and Eoin McKeon scored the first try of the game with relative ease.
Edinburgh captain Ross Ford did not even attempt to make a tackle on Kieran Marmion, whose pass to the flanker allowed him to score under the posts. Crosbie put over the extras.
The Scots suffered another blow when Weir missed an easy penalty attempt that drifted wide. And they fell further behind when Crosbie put over his third penalty to give Connacht a 16-0 lead at the interval.
Poor handling, this time from Damien Hoyland, saw the hosts pass up an early second-half chance.
With Crosbie putting over a penalty and centre Aki punching holes in the Scots defence, it was very much one-way traffic.
Crosbie put over another three points after Edinburgh were caught offside, which was the signal for many of the home fans to leave with only an hour on the clock.
Connacht were so much in command they felt able to take off their playmaker and goal-kicker Crosbie for the last 20 minutes. But that move was to have a galvanising effect on Edinburgh.
Hoyland looked like he was going to score before being held up short. When the ball was recycled, Rory Scholes was set to touch down in the corner before Tiernan O’Halloran broke the line illegally to steal the ball.
After referee Jones looked at the incident on the big screen, he awarded a penalty try which was converted by Weir. Watson then went under the posts and, following Weir’s conversion, it was suddenly game on with 15 minutes left.
Bryce’s try with just six minutes remaining gave the home side real hope as Connacht — now only three points ahead — started to panic.
With Watson trying everything he knew, Edinburgh staged a late rally in a valiant attempt to pull off a remarkable result, but sadly for the hosts, Connacht regained their composure.
For the last few minutes they ran down the clock despite Edinburgh giving them a late scare. In the end, they deserved to hold on to win by three points.