Capital men stew after Wasps’sting

FOR Edinburgh, winning the United Rugby Championship the hard way is the only chance they have left of lifting silverware this season.

A campaign that promised so much under head coach Mike Blair is at risk of ending with a whimper after Saturday’s loss to Wasps in the European Challenge Cup quarter-final.

Having also failed to finish in the top four in the league like Glasgow, they are facing tough away play-offs.

They weren’t helped on Saturday by a deplorable display from French referee Pierre Brousset, who failed to award a penalty in the closing minutes when Brad Shields deliberately slapped the ball out of Henry Pyrgos’ hand as he was about to get it away from the ruck.

The official also missed a couple of knock-ons at key moments by players from the English club. No wonder Blair couldn’t understand some of the decisions that went against his team and later chose his words carefully.

In the cold light of day, however, it wasn’t just appalling refereeing that cost Edinburgh. This was a game they should still have won.

There were too many unforced errors, restarts were handled badly and discipline was a problem, with Conor Boyle yellow-carded.

Selection-wise, Blair made the puzzling choice of starting Harrison Courtney at prop ahead of Pierre Schoeman. Then he took him off three minutes from half-time and replaced him with Schoeman when it was clear the Edinburgh scrum was suffering. He also rested Hamish Watson completely, only for his influence in the back row to be badly missed.

Adam McBurney played well in a rare start in the absence of injured Stuart McInally at hooker. His try just before half-time should have been built on by Edinburgh.

The home side had taken an early lead through a Ben Vellacott try before Jimmy Gopperth went over for the visitors, but all looked well when McBurney scored after some great support work from his forward pack.

In the second period, Wasps props Bi Alo and Tom West went over for a try each before man-ofthe-match Magnus Bradbury powered over for Edinburgh.

The game was settled, though, when Alfie Barbeary, the best man on the park for Wasps, went over for the winning try.

‘There were a couple of moments we let them past us,’ admitted McBurney, who was the pick of the Edinburgh front row.

‘We did a lot of good stuff out there and pride ourselves on work rate and energy and physicality.

‘That was all there but, for us, in terms of growing as a group, we want to be on the right side of the scoresheet.

‘We said with knockout rugby it doesn’t matter what you put out on the pitch, it is all about getting the win and we came up short of that today.

‘We have another opportunity in another quarter-final now in the league to put that right and we want to be in the semi-final and the final.

‘Unfortunately, the Challenge Cup is now out of our reach, so we move on to the URC and will try and push up the table by beating Glasgow in our final game before the play-offs. We see that match as a final in itself and we want to go out on a high at the end of the season.’

McBurney, who has been in McInally’s shadow since he joined the club 14 months ago, enjoyed his rare first-team start, but admitted it meant little because of the result.

‘To be honest, I would rather have got zero minutes and us get into a semi-final,’ said the front row. ‘I want to play, too, but as a group and as a collective we wanted to get into the semi-finals and didn’t do that.

‘Now it’s a case of parking that result and moving on. That Glasgow game in a fortnight is a final in itself. We are currently eighth in the league and want to get higher.’

On their day, Edinburgh can do well in the league play-offs, but need all their top players back, such as winger Darcy Graham, who missed the Wasps game through injury.

Watson needs to be reinstated for the league run-in, with Bradbury having the added motivation of wanting to win silverware before he moves to Bristol Bears next season. They have a consistent goal-kicker in winger Emiliano Boffelli and Blair Kinghorn is getting better at ten. Schoeman needs to start every game at loosehead prop as he is in terrific form.

It is now up to Blair to get the best out of his players at the business end of the season which he failed to do in their defeat to Wasps.