Edinburgh 48 - 47 Racing Metro: Sensational fightback secures back-to-back Euro victories for Scots

There are still four games to go in the pool, crucial games against Cardiff who are also unbeaten now looming in December, and then the return fixtures with Irish and Racing, which had captain Greig Laidlaw trying to keep a lid on emotions last night, but the courage and style of Edinburgh’s comeback from a 24-point deficit in the last 20 minutes last night had already sent over 5,000 Edinburgh supporters home delirious.

After kicking a penalty to claim a 20-19 at London Irish, Laidlaw was again the match-winner last night, the Borderer showing nerves of steel to convert a sixth Edinburgh try from the left touchline with three minutes remaining. Racing had one last chance when they set up Argentina stand-off Juan Martin Hernandez in front of the posts, but under pressure the world talent scuffed his attempt wide of the uprights.

Edinburgh coach Michael Bradley, a former Ireland scrum-half, admitted that his heart-rate had never undergone such wild peaks and troughs during a game of rugby. He said: “At one stage it was flat-lining because the game was lost really, and then of course it built up into a crescendo and you’re thinking if Greig gets this kick we’re actually going to win this match 48-47, which was probably the toughest point of the day, and then he slots it. That [Hernandez drop-goal attempt] was hard as well. They scored 47 points and didn’t win a match away from home playing fantastic rugby, so you might say a draw would have been a fair result, but we’ll take 48-47.

“We keep talking about Scottish rugby and how the pro clubs need to perform, but you won’t get a better game of rugby than you saw today.”

Bradley earned plaudits too as he switched the teenage stand-off Harry Leonard at half-time and sent on Mike Blair at scrum-half and shifted Laidlaw to stand-off, where the more experienced skipper controlled the game with his running style. Laidlaw’s leadership was crucial and his conversion truly stunning, and further questioned the wisdom of Scotland coach Andy Robinson in leaving him out of the World Cup squad.

The Edinburgh captain said: “I probably thought the game was gone when they were 24 points up and there’s only 20 minutes left or whatever,” he said. “You’re thinking then ‘you’ve had your chances and it’s gone’ but we knew we could score tries and when they had the sin-binning we felt we had a chance, so ‘let’s just go for it’. With the players we’ve got we can score tries from anywhere and I think we showed that tonight, and we eventually stopped them scoring, thank God.”

Edinburgh top Pool 2, one point ahead of Cardiff, who edged London Irish at home last night. Glasgow are in Dublin tomorrow to face the reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster, where they will be the underdogs again, but will take confidence from Edinburgh’s incredible triumph.

However, when asked what he will reflect on first from this unprecedented win, Laidlaw typically added: “We’ll look at the defence first I think. We can’t leak 47 points every week because the chances are we won’t score 48.

“We need to tighten that up, definitely.

“But we won again so we don’t really care to be honest. We take great confidence from that.”