Edinburgh blown away as Ulster reign at Murrayfield

EDINBURGH head coach Alan Solomons admitted that his side were blown off the pitch in last night’s dire 9-3 RaboDirect PRO12 defeat to Ulster, but refrained from criticising Irish referee John Lacey.

Fans inside Murrayfield step onto the pitch before the stadium closes to be re-surfaced. Picture: SNS/SRU

Three penalties from Ireland stand-off Paddy Jackson to one from Carl Bezuidenhout, the Edinburgh No 10, settled the outcome and pushed Ulster up to second in the table. The Scots still moved up a place to seventh by virtue of gaining a losing bonus point, at least until today’s games. But the count of 16 penalties against, and just four for, and a scrum under pressure, was reminiscent of Scotland’s recent Six Nations problems and left Solomons frustrated.

“All I can say is that we will look at every penalty in the review and assess it,” he said. “It’s pretty clear there was nothing in the game and not much between the sides, and that penalty count against us had a huge bearing on the game.”

It was the final match at Murrayfield before the replacement of the troubled pitch with a new hybrid surface.