Stade Francais 31 - 7 Edinburgh: Edinburgh lose the game and their heads

Published on Sunday 11 October 2009 23:26

IT IS happening a little too often for Edinburgh's dismal performance against Stade Francais to be dismissed as a bad day at the office. Edinburgh leaked four tries to the Ospreys last week, they conceded four to Leinster at the same stage of the Heineken Cup last year and Stade had their bonus point inside the half hour on Saturday.

If the 12,000 capacity crowd in Stade Jean Bouin had lined up and demanded their money back they could have been forgiven because the second half of this match was an utter non-event which Edinburgh actually won 7-3. It's just as well that Stade's millionaire owner Max Guazzini had gifted a block of tickets to Edinburgh supporters who certainly deserved a refund.

As Rob Moffat sifts through the car crash of Saturday afternoon's first half he will surely wonder where the team's leaders are hiding because his side didn't just lose the game, they lost their heads too. Edinburgh not only played poor rugby but they played dumb rugby which is probably worse since it's easier to grow muscles than brains.

Edinburgh actually weathered the expected Stade storm in the opening five minutes and it was ironic that the visitors' first attack of note should have produced a try; a shame it went to the opposition. If even half the breaks that John Houston makes were turned into scores Edinburgh would be in a much happier position. Instead the big centre seems to surprise his team-mates every bit as much as he does the opposition because his first clean break was made in splendid isolation. Houston was tackled, the ball was turned over and French winger Julien Arias sprinted 55 metres to score.

Not long after that a simple inside pass put the winger away again and Mike Blair's diving tackle proved ineffective. This time Sergio Parisse was on hand to finish off the move and Edinburgh found themselves 14-0 down after ten minutes.

Edinburgh desperately needed to register something on the scoreboard to lift flagging spirits so it was little short of madness when Blair chose an attacking lineout rather than going for goal when they were awarded a kickable penalty 15 minutes into the match.

"We did the same last week at the Ospreys in a similar scenario when we were trailing 24-10," Rob Moffat admitted. "You don't panic. It was the same on Saturday as it was last week. The opposition score a couple of tries and we think about chasing the game. That's not the case at all. Last week if we'd kicked a penalty it's 24-13 and another try and we're right back in it. I agree that at 14-0 (you take the points), and the worst thing was we threw the lineout squint."

The breathless pace of the game was only helping Stade and sure enough the French club scored two more tries thanks to Pascal Pape and Lionel Beauxis.

Edinburgh came to Paris with a high-tempo, ball-in-hand game plan and they stuck to it regardless of the old army adage that no plan survives the first contact with the enemy. Instead of trying to score with every move, Edinburgh needed to pull in their horns and chip away at Stade's confidence before they even started on the Paris defences. Instead they threw the ball about looking for gaps rather than creating them with those traditional virtues of straight and hard running.

When he watches the video Scotland head coach Andy Robinson will do so with his angry face on because several key national players were woefully off colour, especially the half-backs. Blair's decision making and service were as bad as each other while Phil Godman utterly failed to adjust to circumstances. Instead of booting the ball into the right areas of the field the fly-half persisted with playing sevens. Instead of building phases with patient approach work Edinburgh forced the issue, the pace and the pass. They ran up blind alleys, and, on one embarrassing occasion, ran straight back out again in full retreat.

If the defence was at fault once again, and boy was it ever, Edinburgh's work at the breakdown is no less of an issue because you'd run out of fingers and toes counting the turnovers that the Scots conceded. Turnover ball led directly to Stade's first and last tries. In addition to giving the opposition possession with no defensive line to speak of, the numerous turnovers prevented Edinburgh from building up any momentum of their own, and that despite fielding two traditional openside flankers.

Moffat will surely attempt to freshen up his side for next Saturday's must-win match against Ulster. Nick De Luca put his hand up, taking advantage of some extra space when he came on for the last half hour and combining well with Ben Cairns for Edinburgh's only try. Kyle Traynor made a case for starting at loosehead, Scott Newlands may add some much needed beef to a lightweight back row and, on the evidence from Saturday, Greig Laidlaw is challenging Blair hard for the scrum-half shirt.

Scorers: Stade Franais: Tries: Arias, Parisse, Pape, Beauxis. Con: Dupuy (4). Pen: Oelschig.

Edinburgh: Try: Cairns. Con: Godman

Stade Francais: H Southwell; J Arias, G Bousses, G Messina, M Gasnier; L Beauxis, J Dupuy; R Roncero, D Szarzewski, S Marconnet, T Palmer, P Pape, J Haskell, A Burban, S Parisse. Subs used: B Kayser for Burban 34mins, N Oelschig for Dupuy, D Attoub for S Marconnet, both 40, L Beauxis for Bergamasco, D Weber for Roncero, M Blin for Szarzewski, all 62, O Phillips for Southwell, A Marchois for Pape, both 67.

Edinburgh: C Paterson; M Robertson, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S MacLeod, C Hamilton, A MacDonald, R Grant, A Hogg. Subs used: K Traynor for Jacobsen, N De Luca for Houston, both 48mins, S Turnbull for Hamilton 50, S Jones for Paterson, G Laidlaw for Blair, both 60, R Grant for Cross, S Newlands for Hogg, both 62.

Referee: N Owens (WRU).