Edinburgh 21-22 Ospreys: Late lapse costs capital side

Edinburgh had victory snatched from them in the closing minutes of this, their second and final 
pre-season friendly, after leading for most of the match. Some elementary lapses cost them the win after two tries from Matt Scott and another from Jamie Farndale had appeared to put them in control, but besides those errors, there were also a lot of positive aspects for the coaches to reflect on.
Matt Scott breaks through the Ospreys defence to score. Picture: Ross Parker/SNSMatt Scott breaks through the Ospreys defence to score. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS
Matt Scott breaks through the Ospreys defence to score. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

There were debuts for Jamie Bhatti and Ruan Steenkamp and a first game in 15 months for Lewis Carmichael following injury, and, with the first Pro14 match against Zebre just a fortnight away, assistant coach Duncan Hodge is confident that the squad is moving in the right direction.

“There was some very good stuff, and then some poor stuff,” he said. “I think the big thing is that there’s still a lot of positives there, a lot of good work.

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“It’s not the biggest game of the season though, that one – the biggest game of the season is the one coming up next. So that’s what we’ve got to focus on and we’ll take it from there.”

Ospreys opened the scoring from a lineout maul, with hooker Sam Parry getting the unconverted try. Edinburgh replied through Scott, who barged his way with brutal dynamism through two would-be tacklers before touching down. Jaco van der Walt converted.

Mark Bennett then put in one of his trademark ghosting runs to set up a second try, scored by Farndale after Van der Walt had provided the link. The stand-off again added the two points to stretch his team’s lead to nine after half an hour, and the score was still 14-5 at half-time.

Ospreys sub Luke Morgan made a quick impact in the second half, taking advantage of an unexpected opening to burst through and touch down for a try which Luke Price converted. Scott then injected a bit of magic into proceedings. Noticing a gap in midfield, he raced through it then passed to fellow-centre James Johnstone. With the defence closing in, Johnstone slipped a pass back to Scott, who finished off just by the posts. Simon Hickey converted.

Ten minutes from time, Scott Otten scored from short range to put the Ospreys back in contention. Cai Evans’ conversion made it 21-19, and the same player snatched the win with a penalty three minutes from time.

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