Castres 21 - 16 Edinburgh: Scots made to pay for costly mistakes

Published on Sunday 12 December 2010 18:14

THERE goes another year where Edinburgh have knocked themselves out of the Heineken Cup before the half-way mark in the pool stages, but what really, really frustrates Rob Moffat, the coach, is that he knows this was yet another in the season's already long catalogue of results that got away.

• Castres' Rodrigo Capo grabs the ball in a melee. Picture: AFP/Getty

"We could have won that," he said as the squad flew home trying to pick themselves up to face the same opponents again at home on Sunday. "I thought that we were the better team for large parts of that, I'm very frustrated."

The game turned on a ten-minute spell when Fraser McKenzie was in the sin bin, accused of pulling down a maul but really the victim of a rash of penalties given away by his teammates that meant somebody was heading there sooner or later.

While he was off, Castres scored their only two tries, moving from deadlock to a comfortable lead that they held to the end, but Moffat felt the problems had started long before that.

As with Glasgow against Toulouse the previous night, the issue was the set piece.

For the team in the west, the problem had been the scrums, but for Edinburgh it was the lineout that misfired badly, particularly when Scott Murray was on the field and picking the ball out of the air with all the enthusiasm of a player 15 years younger than he really is before being forced off by a calf injury.

"You have got to win the set piece and the lineout was all over the place," said Moffat. "You have to do your basics. After a shaky start, I thought we were starting to play well, looking dangerous with the ball and they looked as though they were struggling to cope with it."

Of course, as with most rugby matches, particularly at this level, mistakes and sending offs are pounced on.

Moffat continued: "The sin binning? If you give away as many penalties as we did, then you are always going to be up against it.

"We lost a good many lineouts and when the penalty count is like that, you are always going to struggle, particularly away from home.

"No lack of effort and commitment, we take that for granted, and at times they were finding it hard to cope with us, but the frustrating thing is that we have lost three European games and could easily have won them all.We should have won at least two of them."

The only positive news for Edinburgh was that Simon Webster, who has had a year of trouble with an Achilles' tendon injury that nobody seemed to be able to cure, did make his comeback and not only played more than 20 minutes without looking as jaded as he might have done, but got the try that gave the Scots hope of a late turnaround to rescue the match and their campaign.

The first half had been mainly dominated by the French with Romain Teulet, their full back, kicking three penalties to ease his side in front, but there were echoes of the Edinburgh victory at the same ground two years ago in the way that they weathered the storm and got themselves back into the match.

By half-time, the scores were level again after Chris Paterson, who spent the last quarter of the game back at fly-half, kicked two penalties and Greig Laidlaw the other.

Last time they were at the Stade Pierre Antoine, Edinburgh had used that rebound to move in front and stay there. It shows how the team has changed that this time, while they looked the better team on either side of the break, they could not capitalise on their dominance.

Instead Castres broke the Scottish stranglehold, pummelled at the opponents' line and, after McKenzie was sent for his rest took full advantage when Iosefa Tekori, memorable in Scots minds for giving away the penalty that allowed the national side to beat Samoa in Aberdeen last month, took his revenge with a barnstorming run down the blindside to put winger Vincent Inigo in for the breakthrough try.

Within minutes they held a winning lead. Chris Masoe, the Castres captain and inspiration, stole the ball and the home side swept upfield with Inigo turning supplier as Steve Malonga, the flanker, popped up on his shoulder to take the scoring pass.

Moffat and his players were taking some heart from the way they bounced back and Webster's try brought them within a score of another memorable victory. But, though there was plenty of ambition, they lacked the cutting edge really to threaten to find the try they needed.

Castres: R Teulet; V Inigo, R Cabannes, J Tatupu, M Andreu; C McIntyre, A Albouy; C Hoeft, B Kayser, L Ducalcon, S Murray, K Kulemin, S Malonga, C Masoe (C), I Tekori. Subs: I Diarra for S Malonga, 79; F Denos for C McIntyre, 65; D Saayman for L Ducalcon, 65; T Sanchou for A Albouy, 57; M Coetzee for C Hoeft, 57; M Bonello for B Kayser, 57; R Capo Ortega for S Murray, 51; P Bernard for R Teulet, 40.

Edinburgh: C Paterson; J Thompson, B Cairns, J Houston, L Jones; D Blair, G Laidlaw; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, F McKenzie (sin bin: 57-67), S Turnbull, S Newlands, R Rennie, R Grant (C). Subs: C Hamilton for Newlands, 73; A Kelly for Ford 70; E Lozada for Turnbull, 66; D Young for G Cross, 66; S Webster for D Blair, 57.