Late show proves a bonus as Gunners win Italian job
ZEBRE PARMA 10 EDINBURGH 27 Edinburgh left it late to claim a bonus point to take home from Italy yesterday, only scoring the vital fourth try in stoppage-time at the end of a tough match.
But head coach Mike Blair was still pretty pleased with the outcome, which saw his team win for the third time in five games in the United Rugby Championship.
“It wasn’t ideal in terms of the performance. But we’ve got through these five games pretty successfully,” the former Scotland scrum-half said after Ben Vellacott’s last-gasp try had secured the full five match points.
“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.
“We’re a club who are at the start of a journey together. It’s good to see the growth in terms of where we’re going.”
Edinburgh are now three points ahead of Glasgow Warriors, and another three ahead of Benetton.
The pecking order between those three teams and Zebre will matter at the end of the season, because the best of the four will be guaranteed a place in the Champions Cup. But for the time being at least, Blair is more concerned with how his team fare in individual head-to-head games.
“To be honest, I’ve tried not to look at the table too much,” he added.
“It’s once you get to the business end of the season things like that become more important. Especially with the way the league is just now and the different conferences, there’s all sorts going on.”
Blair Kinghorn, who converted two of his team’s four tries, opened the scoring with a penalty. But Zebre hit back through a touchdown from winger Pierre Bruno, converted by stand-off Carlo Canna. Edinburgh took an 8-7 lead into the second half after Jack Blain finished off on the right following good work from Kinghorn and captain Jamie Ritchie. But the game stayed hanging in the balance for the first 10 minutes after the break. Then scrum-half Vellacott and prop forward Boan Venter came off the bench, and the combination of speed and power from those two gave the visitors some real momentum at last.
Stuart Mcinally got the Scots’ second from a lineout drive after a penalty had been sent to touch.
And then – within a minute of Zebre back-row Jimmy Tuivaiti being yellow-carded for not allowing Vellacott to go 10m from a tap penalty – Venter finished off after another solid drive.
Kinghorn’s conversion took his team’s tally to 20 and, although Zebre soon cut the deficit with an Antonio Rizzi penalty, Edinburgh had the last word.
They might have thought their chance was gone when Charlie Savala was held up over the line, but there was still time for them to create one last opening, and this time Vellacott made no mistake, slipping in at the corner for another converted try.
“When Ben came on, he definitely raised the tempo for us,” Blair said of the summer signing, who can count himself really unlucky to miss out on the Scotland squad for the Autumn Nations Series after putting in some outstanding performances for his new team.
“It can be good having someone like that to come off the bench against a tiring front five in the opposition.”