Vellacott provides spark as Edinburgh complete Italian job
ALREADY the architect of so much good for Edinburgh this season, Ben Vellacott was once again the hero yesterday as his last-gasp try secured a bonus-point victory against Zebre.
Edinburgh had toiled in Italy, before the introduction of Vellacott from the bench just after half-time helped spark them into life.
The replacement scrum-half made a huge difference, with the visitors scoring two tries in the space of five second-half minutes — one from Stuart McInally, the other from Boan Venter — to take the game away from Zebre.
But it was Vellacott who helped turn a scrappy performance into a bonuspoint win when he touched down in the corner with the clock having already ticked past 80 minutes.
‘When Ben came on, he definitely raised the tempo for us,’ said head coach Mike Blair. ‘It can be good having someone like that to come off the bench against a tiring front five in the opposition.’
With three wins and a draw from their opening five games in the United Rugby Championship, this win elevates Edinburgh above Glasgow in the table.
‘To be honest, I’ve tried not to look at the table too much,’ continued Blair. ‘It’s once you get to the business end of the season things like that become more important.
‘We are pleased with the win. Calum MacRae (defence coach) was telling me that the last two times we’ve come here, we’ve lost.
‘My wife will tell you I’m very negative when I say: “We’ve won five points, but…”. It wasn’t ideal in terms of the performance, but we’ve got through these five games pretty successfully (at the start of season).
‘There’s still a lot of growth in us and a lot of areas we can get better. But coming away to Italy and taking five points is definitely a positive.’
A Blair Kinghorn penalty put Edinburgh into an early lead after just five minutes, but they seemed to lose their way thereafter.
Their line-out wasn’t functioning properly at all, allowing Zebre to build some pressure.
The Italians were intent on throwing the ball around whenever possible — and they got their reward with the opening try just after the quarter-hour mark.
Winger Pierre Bruno was the scorer, with Italy fly-half Carlo Canna slotting the conversion.
Edinburgh’s performance had been scrappy at best, but they eventually managed to settle and replied with a try of their own after half an hour.
Winger Jack Blain touched down after they had built some pressure. Kinghorn missed the conversion, but he had played a key role in the build-up with some quick hands setting Blain free in the corner.
So impressive over the opening few weeks of the season, Vellacott was introduced from the bench on 48 minutes to try to offer Edinburgh some more zip at scrum-half.
Edinburgh’s second try arrived five minutes later when Scotland hooker McInally latched on to the back of a line-out maul and dived over.
Again, though, Kinghorn missed the conversion as Zebre remained within a converted try at 13-7 behind.
A third Edinburgh try wasn’t long in coming, though, with replacement prop Venter powering over to take the game away from Zebre. Kinghorn’s conversion was good on this occasion.
A penalty from Zebre’s Antonio Rizzi narrowed the gap to 20-10 on 65 minutes — and it looked like that might well be the end of the scoring.
But Vellacott popped up in the very last play of the game to score in the corner, with Kinghorn adding the extras.
SCORERS: ZEBRE — Try: Bruno. Cons: Canna. Pen: Rizzi.
EDINBURGH — Tries: Blain, McInally, Venter, Vellacott. Cons: Kinghorn (2). Pen: Kinghorn.