DINING OUT
Blair’s no average ‘dinner suit 10’ as Gunners bag South Africa first
Blair Kinghorn gave further proof he’s no “dinner suit 10” as Edinburgh braved a monsoon to break ground on the road.
The playmaker chalked up two tries and a stellar all-round display as the Gunners became the first European side to win in South Africa this season.
Kinghorn opened the scoring against Sharks with a dummy and break in the first half.
And he sealed the win with 10 minutes to go when he showed superb football skills to dribble a loose ball over the try line.
Argentine ful l- back Emiliano Boffelli dotted down and kicked all three conversions in a win that pushes Edinburgh back into the race for a home play-off draw in the United Rugby Championship.
The plan to convert Kinghorn into the key playmaker for Scotland and Edinburgh has split opinion after a switch from full-back to stand- off.
But Gunners head coach Mike Blair insists the 25year-old’s raw pace offers a valuable difference to his rivals for the No.10 jersey.
The coach said: “We’ve encouraged Blair to understand he’s a real threat with the ball in hand.
“If a seam opens up, we want him to take that opportunity. With other stand-offs, you might want them to be what we call a dinner suit 10, so they make the pass then realign and go again. We want Blair to take on the line.
“That’s what he did in the first half and he did it again in the lead-up to Emiliano’s try, so he was excellent.”
The match was played in monsoon conditions and Blair praised the way both Kinghorn and the rest of his team adapted. He added: “We said to ourselves it was going to take something special to be the f irst northern hemisphere team to win in South Africa this year.
“When we were driving here with the rain coming down, I couldn’t decide if it was a good or bad thing.
“We’re obviously a team who like to move the ball around and we wanted to do that against a big Sharks pack.
“But we’d also spoken about how important it was going to be to show character and how much we want to play for the jersey. This gave us an opportunity to show that.”
The Lions loom next weekend in their mini tour and Blair said: “I want us to enjoy the wins. But I don’t want us to overcelebrate them because good teams are built on consistency of results.”