Efficient Edinburgh put an end to
‘In the second half we took the game by the scruff of the neck and deserved to win’
Richard Cockerill loves to claim the underdog status by talking about how Edinburgh have yet to win on the road this season. But having previously lost all seven away games, including a 34-16 walloping at Zebre, the Edinburgh coach will have to change his chat after an emphatic Champions Cup win at Kingston Park in which the visitors scored 18 unanswered points.
Edinburgh, aided and abetted by a seemingly never-ending litany of errors from a curiously out-of-sorts Newcastle, now top the group after starting the campaign as 14-1 outsiders to make it out of the pool.
Only a trip to Toulon and a home match against Montpellier stand between Cockerill’s side and the knockout stages.
“This is a great result for us considering we had not won away from home in eight months,” said Cockerill, who turned 48 yesterday. “We came here to win, we had a plan, we made some errors, but the boys stuck to the task and, over the 80 minutes, were the better team.
“I felt at half-time that we were just waiting for the game to happen, but in the second half we took it by the scruff of the neck and deserved to win. I’m very proud to be the Edinburgh coach tonight.”
The bedrock of this win was Edinburgh’s domination of the set-piece situations, with the Scots’ work at the line-out of the highest order, while their scrum totally bossed the Falcons. Crucially, while they did not create more line breaks than their hosts, they were far better at building pressure and more ruthless in Newcastle’s 22.
Although Edinburgh started brightly, both sides struggled to get into their stride, with the deadlock Toulouse’s resurgence in Europe has been inspired by offloading. On Saturday, Antoine Dupont and only broken at the end of the first quarter when Jaco van der Walt hoisted an up-and-under. Darcy Graham raced up and flew past Simon Hamersley as he claimed the ball, so when the Falcons full-back fed Niki Goneva, there was no one at home on the visitors’ right wing. With Edinburgh scrambling, the wing popped the ball inside for the tracking Sinoti Sinoti to go over.
Almost from the restart Newcastle were pinged for not rolling away, Van der Walt kicking the penalty, only for Edinburgh to be penalised in almost identical circumstances shortly afterwards, Toby Flood kicking the penalty to make it 8-3 after half an hour.
From there, though, Edinburgh were dominant. When they kicked off and Gary Graham knocked on in Newcastle’s 22, it was the cue for an Edinburgh onslaught that never abated. First they shunted the Falcons’ scrum backwards and then their forwards almost forced their way over several times. When Newcastle were penalised at a scrum again, Van der Walt stepped up to make it 8-6. Given the pressure Newcastle had been under, they must have been sorely relieved to go into half-time leading 8-6.
If Edinburgh showed a lack of ruthlessness before the break, Cockerill’s half-time team talk clearly stiffened their resolve and after the break they grabbed the initiative. Duhan van der Merwe was the catalyst for their first try, the big South African charging down the wing, kicking ahead and then driving Hammersley into touch. From the resulting line-out, scrum-half Henry Pyrgos moved to stand-off and put in a deft kick over the top which centre James Johnstone juggled before touching down, Van der Walt’s conversion giving the visitors a five-point lead.
Ahead on the scoreboard, dominating possession and sensing a chance to go for the kill, Edinburgh laid siege to Newcastle’s line. The Falcons held up one fivemetre line-out drive only for Edinburgh’s forwards to rumble infield and almost force their way over. Moments later a Graham break put Chris Dean away, only a despairing Johnny Williams tap tackle preventing a try.
Newcastle were now firmly on the ropes, and when Van der Walt kicked a penalty after the Falcons scrum crumpled once more, Edinburgh were more than a converted try ahead with just 20 minutes remaining.
Desperate to change the narrative, Newcastle changed tack, launching one-off runners into the channel.
Edinburgh, though, lapped it up, smashing the Falcons’ ball-carriers