BLAME HENRY? A LOAD OF BULL
Blair won’t point finger at Immelman over penalty miss
Henry Immelman missed a penalty that would have given Edinburgh a thrilling victory in South Africa with the last kick.
But head coach Mike Blair insisted the full-back wasn’t to blame for the heartbreaking URC loss.
Blair’s team scored five tries against the Bulls in Pretoria, with Darcy Graham claiming a hat-trick to take his tally for the new season to five in just two games.
Charlie Savala and Damien Hoyland also touched down but Mark Bennett missed two of his five conversion attempts and Immelman was off target with another penalty in addition to his last-gasp effort.
Edinburgh still took two losing bonus points from the game after being 15- 0 down at one point in the first half. And
Blair, pointing out that three of his first-choice kickers had been unavai lable, insisted the outcome had been down to a lot more than just the one late kick from Immelman.
He said: “We were looking at that game exactly the same as if that kick went over or didn’t.
“Henry is not a front-line kicker but he stood up and wanted to do it.
“It was a difficult kick, he didn’t make it and of course he is distraught about it.
“He had an excellent game apart from that. The game was lost in that last 10 minutes and not with that kick.
“We are missing some front-line kickers. Jaco [Van der Walt] would have been there, Blair Kinghorn would have been there, [Emiliano] Boffelli is away with Argentina.”
Kinghorn had been selected to start but was ruled out yesterday morning with a stomach bug.
Van der Walt moved up from the bench to replace him but he only lasted 10 minutes before going off with a head injury.
Things looked bleak for Edinburgh when skipper Grant Gilchrist was sinbinned just before they went 15-0 down. But tries from Savala and Graham got them back to just a point behind at the break.
Blair was left with a sense of what could have been and the head coach said: “It was definitely a disappointing start, the first quarter of the game.
“I didn’t think we were quite there mentally. That gave the Bulls a couple of easy ins for the game by not being switched on enough.
“On the positive side, the way we came back from that, and the guts, courage and skill we brought to the game, was absolutely outstanding.
“There was too much of a cushion at the start but we got ourselves back into the position to win the game. It was an outstanding effort.”
The second half was nip and tuck until, with 10 minutes left, Bennett converted Hoyland’s try to put his side in front for the first time.
Fi v e mi nut e s later, Immelman could have turned a one-point lead into four but was off target.
Then 38- year- old Morne Steyn - the man who scored the winning poi nt s for the Springboks in last year’s series against the Lions – put his team back in front with a 78th-minute penalty.
Immelman had that last-gasp chance at glory but it was not to be for Edinburgh.
Bulls...................... 33 Edinburgh ........... 31 ■ Stuart Bathgate