Blair’s disappointment as Edinburgh lose to 14-man Benetton
Edinburgh failed to take advantage of the early sending-off of Benetton debutant Matteo Minozzi as they lost 24-17 to the Italians in the United Rugby Championship.
Minozzi was dismissed for dangerous play after just 10 minutes at the Stadio Monigo on saturday, but the hosts–who had two spells with just 13 men – claimed a bonus-point win with tries from marcus watson, Sebastian Negri, Niccolo Cannone and Rhyno Smith.
Edinburgh twice fought back to level in the second half with Henry Immelman claiming a double, but Smith’s score proved decisive as Benetton held on in a nervy finish.
Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair could not hide his disappointment at the defeat.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” he said blair .“we knew this was going to be a really tough game with the team they picked.
“Benetton were excellent and managed the game really well after the red card. They were really smart, but I said to the players at half-time that the game was still in our hands.
“We’ve seen it before, though, with red cards and how it can really galvanise a team. it brings emotion into it and gives them that backs-to-the-wall type of mentality, but we’ve got to be better than that.
“We’ve got to see that as an opportunity. I think we waited and thought that( red card) was going to be the thing that won us game, but that wasn’t the case. It’ s your physicality, your relentlessnessnature of attack, persistence in defence, your smarts– that’ s what wins you games. collectively, we were just off it.
“I don’t think you can put it down to one thing. We always speak about what we want the perception of us to be from others. That perception is around the ruthless and clinical nature of our attack, as well as physicality in defence. We didn’t get that.”
Edinburgh now have to lick their wounds ahead of a key match at home to Munster on Friday.
Blair said: “This period is an opportunity for the club. This group of players won away against Zebre and Cardiff, so there’ s been some real positives.
“This was a tough game to come back to after the break for a few weeks.
“We were just off it in a couple of areas and that’s something we need to fix moving forward .”