Edinburgh hang on to grab first win of campaign

Forget the fact that Connacht director of coaching Eric Elwood had almost a full squad to select from because no one from Galway is away on World Cup duty, while seven key Edinburgh players are over in New Zealand; or that Connacht came into this match on the back of two wins from two competitive outings against Treviso and Scarlets, while Edinburgh were still winless in the league; or that the presence of their former head coach Michael Bradley in the home dug-out was bound to give the Irishmen a psychological boost. We have so few causes for optimism when it comes to Scottish pro-teams these days that we can’t help but get carried away when we are genuinely in with a shout of picking up a rare win.

In the end, Edinburgh held on by the skin of their teeth, but had Matthew Jarvis been a bit more accurate with his boot in the first half, or his replacement Niall O’Connell a bit less careless when getting charged down in the second half, then the outcome could easily have been very different.

It started ominously for the home team, with a barnstorming charge up the middle of the park by giant No 8 Dave Denton ending in ignominy when the ball was ripped from his grasp by diminutive scrum-half Frank Murphy, who then launched a sweeping counter attack which was only halted by a last-gasp tackle from Lee Jones on Tiernan O’Halloran.

Connacht passed up two more opportunities to get their noses in front when Jarvis pushed a couple of 35 yard penalty attempts inches wide, and it wasn’t until the match was almost half an hour old that Edinburgh made any sort of meaningful incursion into enemy territory, with Greig Laidlaw’s long range penalty from wide on the left falling well short.

At least this seemed to give the home team some sort of momentum, something which had been conspicuously absent up until that point. After a few more minutes camped in their opponents’ 22, Laidlaw was given a chance to make amends for his earlier miss and this time his pot at goal sailed cleanly between the posts.

Connacht’s willingness to surrender cheap penalties at the breakdown was killing the game as a spectacle, and it was no surprise when referee Alan Falzone lost patience and sent Gavin Duffy for ten minutes in the sin-bin.

This didn’t stop Connacht from mischief making, however, and a few minutes later Laidlaw extended Edinburgh’s lead with a second successful penalty, which made it 6-0 at the break.

The start of the second half was more like a game of table tennis than a professional rugby match, with Laidlaw and Jarvis taking turns to kick penalties at opposite ends of the park. The only interruption to this routine being a searing break from Tom Brown which precipitated Laidlaw’s third successful kick at goal, and the introduction of O’Connor, who took over kicking duties for Connacht.

It wasn’t until the 68th minute – when Denton blocked O’Connor’s kick ahead and replacement stand-off Gregor Hunter managed to hack ahead twice in a 60-yard dash which ended with the youngster flopping on the ball over the line – that the game started to open up.

This score seemed to awaken Connacht and villain soon turned to hero when the first piece of meaningful continuity play in the match by either team ended with O’Connor looping Eoin Griffin to cultivate the space for a fine try. But this was a drab affair between two pretty ordinary sides.

Scorers: Edinburgh – Try: Hunter. Con: Laidlaw. Pens: Laidlaw 4. Connacht – Try: Connor. Pen: Jarvis 2, O’Connor.

Edinburgh: T Brown; L Jones, J Thompson, J King (M Scott 78), T Visser; G Laidlaw, C Leck (G Hunter 52); K Traynor (R Hislop 61), S Lawrie (A Kelly 61), S Knight, G Gilchrist (S McInally 59), S Turnbull, S Cox, R Grant, D Denton.

Connacht: G Duffy; M McCrea (B Tuohy 66), E Griffin, H Fa’afill, T O’Halloran; M Jarvis (N O’Connor 54), F Murphy (P O’Donohoe 59); R Loughney (B Wilkinson 49), E Reynecke (A Flavin 59), R Ah You (D Rogers 43), M Swift, M McCarthy, J Muldoon, J O’Connor, G Noaupu (R Ofisa 36).