Blair has praise for Edinburgh character

Edinburgh Rugby head coach Mike Blair expressed his pride in his players after his first season in charge ended with defeat in South Africa.

Blair’s side went down 28-17 to the Stormers in Cape Town in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

The visitors were level at half-time following Dave Cherry’s try but they conceded one of two second-half Stormers tries towards the end of Magnus Bradbury’s spell in the sin bin and could not make up the ground despite Henry Pyrgos crossing to set up an exciting finale.

Blair took time to reflect on their achievements after the game, following a season in which his side qualified for the Heineken Champions Cup, reached the last eight of the European Challenge Cup as well as the URC and took bragging rights over Glasgow with 1872 Cup success.

He said: “The season as a whole, I am really proud and I can’t fault the effort.

“There’s a couple of little technical things, rugby things, that we need to get better at, but that foundation of heart, spirit and wanting to play for the jersey, was certainly evident.”

Meanwhile George Horne promised Glasgow Warriors fans they would do everything possible to improve after their season ended with a 12try thrashing in Dublin.

Warriors suffered their heaviest defeat in 25 years as they went down 76-14 to Leinster in the URC last eight.

The Fifer said: “We have set our standards higher than that and to put on a performance like that is just not acceptable for us as a squad and a club, and also for the fans as well.

“We have a bit of time off now and we spoke as a group about how we have got to come back hungry and wanting to get better because we can’t have a repeat of that.”