The world is on alert after Mata shows his brilliance
IT was a Saturday night at BT Murrayfield back in December and Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill was fielding questions on his team’s rousing triumph over Glasgow Warriors.
‘We don’t rely on individual brilliance because we haven’t got it,’ claimed Cockerill after a 23-7 victory in the 1872 Cup. ‘We rely on team spirit.’
He is right, of course, in the sense that Edinburgh’s strength is the fact they are a team greater than the sum of their parts.
But the part about not having individual brilliance? Well, that’s not quite true.
In Bill Mata, they most certainly do possess a worldclass talent.
That much became evident on this most famous of nights in the south of France, where Edinburgh took a huge step towards the knockout stage of the Heineken Champions Cup.
Introductions will no longer be necessary. From this point on, the man known as Big Bill to Edinburgh fans will be feared as a genuine A-list player across the world.
For the duration of a pulsating 80 minutes — and at a venue which was once the most revered cauldron in European rugby — Mata ensured his name will now be synonymous with destructive power and sublime skill.
This was a perfect marriage of strength, athleticism and flair, as demonstrated in the creation of Edinburgh’s third try on Saturday night.
Collecting the ball inside his own 22, the big Fijian back-row rampaged his way upfield, punching an almighty hole in the French resistance.
The Toulon defenders tried desperately to stop him. Some were swatted aside, while others were left clinging from his ankles, unable to halt his progress as he advanced into opposition territory.
What happened next was bordering on ridiculous. With a nonchalant flick of his wrist, which must surely be made of elastic, he popped the most outrageous offload to James Johnstone, who ran in to score under the posts.
It was effectively the matchclinching try, with the conversion from Jaco van der Walt putting Edinburgh into a 28-12 lead with just 15 minutes left to play.
Mata is under contract until the summer of 2020 and, on this form, Edinburgh will face a fight to retain his services.
In the land of Champagne rugby, you can guarantee that a lot of the big-spending French clubs will have taken note of this performance.
He is exactly the sort of player they crave in this part of the world. If you placed him in the New Zealand team, his talents would be enough to illuminate even the famous All Black jersey.
He certainly would not look out of place in that sort of elite company, that’s for sure.
‘Bill Mata is a very good player,’ said Cockerill. ‘He is very good with this team because we have a good balance to help him play — he’s a big player for us.
‘But we’re a team that’s about everybody, about the unity of the team.
‘He’s very important, along with everybody else, and he’ll be with us for a long time to come.
‘We are a small team, a small club, but it just shows if you work hard you can do good things.
‘I have a lot of respect for Toulon and (Stade) Mayol. For me to come here and to win is very special for me.
‘I have a lot of respect for the team and I wish them the very best for the rest of the season.’
In the end, the victory actually came as no great surprise. Cockerill and his players were richly deserving of everything that came their way.
They won the match with something to spare and so became the first Scottish team to beat Toulon on their own turf.
Indeed, Edinburgh are only the third team in history to win at the Stade Mayol in the European Cup — and Mata was undeniably a driving force in them doing so.
It sets up a mouthwatering showdown with former Scotland head coach Vern Cotter’s Montpellier at BT Murrayfield on Friday night.
That is now winner-takes-all match to determine who will finish top of the group and clinch a home quarter-final.
Edinburgh’s current tally of 19 points may yet prove to be enough in any case, as it gives them a great a chance of progressing as one of the best runners-up in the worstcase scenario.
This victory in France was all the more impressive given that Cockerill’s men fell behind after just 90 seconds when Toulon hooker Guilhem Guirado went over in a blistering start from the hosts.
From there, though, Edinburgh’s response was magnificent. Mata was named man of the match — and rightly so. His offload alone was worthy of the award.
But, to a man, his team-mates weren’t far behind him. There were no failures in an Edinburgh jersey. Nobody who you could even say had a slightly off night.
This was a performance of poise and maturity. Van der Walt (below) excelled at fly-half, while Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn and Johnstone all got on the scoresheet.
Spare a thought for Jamie Ritchie, though. The Scotland flanker popped a brilliant offload for Graham to finish powerfully in the corner, but it ended up not even being the best pass of the night.
That went to Mata, whose assist for Johnstone came after a Kinghorn try and Van der Walt’s boot had seen Edinburgh overturn a half-time deficit of 12-8. Former All Black World Cupwinning winger Julian Savea scored a late try for the hosts, adding to an earlier effort from Facundo Isa in the first half, but it was little more than a consolation.
Toulon were well beaten in the end and looked a pale imitation of the team who won this tournament three years on the trot between 2013 and 2015.
For Edinburgh, the sky is now the limit.