IRKED BLAIR TAKES A POP AT TMO
Edinburgh’s frustration in defeat as Lions bite
EDINBURGH suffered a blow in their bid for a top-four spot in the United Rugby Championship as they slipped to defeat against the Lions in Johannesburg.
In the second leg of their South African tour, Mike Blair’s side were unable to make it a double after their impressive victory over the Sharks last week.
Leading 6-5 at half-time in what was a scrappy game, the visitors lost their way in the second half and were never really able to find any spark in attack.
At the iconic Ellis Park, venue for the 1995 World Cup final, Edinburgh came unstuck in the Lions’ den as the South Africans powered to a fourth victory on the bounce.
The game hinged on a vital fiveminute period early in the second half when Edinburgh thought they had scored a brilliant try through fly-half Blair Kinghorn.
But it was ruled out by the TMO for a knock-on in the build-up, and Edinburgh then lost Magnus Bradbury to the sin bin almost immediately after.
To compound matters further, the
Lions swiftly scored a try of their own to take the lead — and they never looked back from there.
Edinburgh now have three games remaining in the regular season ahead of the URC play-offs, but their chances of a top-four berth and a home quarter-final have taken a hit.
That said, their final three games are all at home — against Zebre, Ulster and Glasgow Warriors, so they are not quite out of it just yet.
‘We were obviously disappointed with the no-try decision with Blair Kinghorn,’ said Edinburgh head coach Blair, whose side took a losing bonus point. ‘We believe we had managed the game really well up until that stage and that would have given us a nice buffer.
‘We lost a little bit of momentum after that. But I do think it was the right decision. It shouldn’t have been a try.
‘But I felt the TMO was particularly eagle-eyed on one side of the game. I am always conscious of saying something like this because I don’t want it to be the story.
‘But I felt like they spent a lot of time looking for issues that we had done. They spent about three minutes trying to find a high tackle that was made when one of our players was on his knees.
‘There were other ones as well where they sifted through footage for ages trying to look at things.
‘We had a couple of clear-cut headshots and a no-arms tackle which weren’t looked at. But I don’t want that to be the story. We just needed to be a little bit more clinical and we could have won.
‘We spoke a little bit of it being a missed opportunity. We thought we played some decent stuff, but we weren’t quite on our game tonight.
‘There’s still lots to play for. South Africa is an extremely tough place to come and play rugby. But we can build on what we’ve done here. There’s plenty left in the season.’
Edinburgh had the better of the early exchanges and they took the lead after 12 minutes thanks to a booming long-range drop goal from full-back Henry Immelman.
A penalty from Argentina winger Emiliano Boffelli put them 6-0 ahead just shy of the half-hour mark.
But the Lions roared back immediately — and went straight up the other end of the pitch to score the opening try of the match.
The architect was scrum-half Morne van den Berg, who showed great awareness to snipe through a
gap down the blindside. He fed the ball to winger Edwill van der Merwe, who then popped a nice offload back infield for fly-half Jordan Hendrikse to dive over and score.
Hendrikse missed the conversion and the score remained 6-5 in Edinburgh’s favour as the teams went down the tunnel at half-time.
It had been a scrappy game, with neither team really able to click into gear and find any fluency in attack.
Edinburgh thought they had scored their first try of the afternoon on 47 minutes when Kinghorn went over.
It would have been a great try to cap a move which had been started and finished by fly-half Kinghorn, but it was ruled out by the TMO for a knock-on by scrum-half Ben Vellacott in the build-up.
The anguish was compounded just two minutes later when Bradbury was yellow-carded for a clumsy — yet unintentional — off-the-ball trip on opposite number Francke Horn.
The Lions were beginning to look dangerous any time they got ball in hand. Within two minutes of Bradbury being sent to the sin bin, the South Africans scored their second try to take the lead.
It came from another break down the blindside and it was eventually openside flanker Emmanuel Tshituka who rumbled over the line to touch down.
Hendrikse added the conversion to put his team into a 12-6 lead and they now had firm control of the match.
Between Kinghorn’s disallowed try, the yellow card to Bradbury, and then the Lions scoring a second try, it felt like a hugely significant period. It had all happened in the space of five minutes and the visitors now had to compose themselves and regather their focus heading into the final quarter of the match.
The ever-reliable Boffelli drilled another penalty between the posts on 63 minutes to cut the gap to just three points at 12-9.
The game was on a knife-edge heading into the final stages. A Hendrikse penalty stretched the Lions’ lead to 15-9.
Edinburgh skipper Mark Bennett then thought he had scored a dramatic late try, but the ball was held up.
So near yet so far — it was that sort of day for Edinburgh.