Scots look Peely wally
It’s woe in Wales but Mike holds out hope
Mike Blair branded Edinburgh’s bashing on the road unacceptable as Dwayne Peel’s Scarlets inflicted a heaviest defeat of the season.
But the head coach insisted the club could still make it into the end-of-season URC playoffs – even though they have now won just once in their last seven league matches. Blair’s boys endured a six-tries-to-two loss in Wales and he said: “We’re pretty gutted. “The performance we put on the pitch wasn’t acceptable in any area and the responsibility for that lies with the coaches, how we prepare the guys and the individual responsibility on each player going into that game. “Physically Scarlets were outstanding. They made a real mess of our breakdown, were relentless and scored some brilliant tries. “We were reactive to everything, we weren’t proactive. There were elements of real effort around what we were doing but it was almost like we waited for a picture to happen before we made a decision around it.” Now 11th, Edinburgh only have four fixtures left to get back into the top half. Blair added: “It’s really tight but we believe it’s in our hands. We’ve got four games left so we look after them and there’s still a chance of getting in the top eight. “That performance isn’t something we’ve seen so far this season. We had a good team out, a team capable of winning that game.” Ryan Conbeer and Vaea Fif ita – who intercepted Mark Bennett’s fumble anand ran in unopposed from halfway – hhad Scarlets 14- 0 up early on. DDespite Murray McCallum making ththe most of an excellent break from JamJames Lang, Steff Evans’ score sent ththe home side in 21-7 to the good. Conbeer and Gareth Davies took ScScarlets’ try tally to five before Boan VVenter got one back. But the home sside had the last word when sub EEddie James barged his way over.