Bradley eyes last-eight spot after thrilling win in Paris

A Phil Godman drop goal with the last move of the match clinched a 27-24 victory away to Racing Metro last night, Edinburgh’s fourth win of the campaign and one of their greatest ever results, which keeps them at the helm of Pool 2.

Their rivals for a last-eight spot, Cardiff Blues, don’t play until this afternoon but victory in Paris opens up a four-point lead for Bradley’s side and he reckons they should go into their final game against London Irish full of confidence.

“We do have the advantage as we are playing at home and there is no need to travel,” he said. “But we have to remember when you go across that line it’s still just a game and we have to do the basics right and we didn’t do them all right tonight.”

Edinburgh took the lead three times at the Stade Yves du Manoir in Paris, with Ross Rennie, Netani Talei and David Denton all touching down, only for Racing to repeatedly level the score.

The difference came down to Godman’s late strike and Bradley praised the Scottish fly-half following his return from injury. “We got lucky at the end, we held our composure and fell over the line with Phil’s drop-goal,” he said. “Credit to him, he’s put in all the hard yards in training in the last six months to get back and come on a win a game like that. Credit has to go to both set of players, it was a good open game of rugby, particularly in that second half.

“Racing really tore into us at the start of that period and we had to weather the storm, but we got there in the end. We knew that the side that could hold onto the ball would get an opportunity in the last ten minutes and that’s what happened. The drop goal was perfect timing for us.”