Plucky Edinburgh fall short in Gloucester - and starlet suffers injury as European bow goes sour

An Edinburgh side shorn of their senior Scotland internationals slipped to a 15-10 defeat at Gloucester in the opening match of their Challenge Cup campaign.

Sean Everitt’s side have failed to win an away match since April 27 and they were never ahead at Kingsholm as the hosts marshalled difficult conditions to score two tries from lineout drives.

Edinburgh picked up a losing bonus point which could yet prove important and they stayed in the fight to the very end. They went in level at half-time thanks to Wes Goosen’s converted try but yellow cards in the second half for Tom Dodd and Marshall Sykes undermined their cause.

Magnus Bradbury of Edinburgh is tackled by Caolan Englefield and Lewis Ludlow of Gloucester. | Getty Images

There were debuts off the bench for Liam McConnell, Rob Carmichael and Conor McAlpine but Freddy Douglas’ first start in Edinburgh colours was cut short by injury. The capital side host Bayonne next and will surely field a stronger team against the French visitors. Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe, Ali Price, Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Grant Gilchrist and Jamie Ritchie were all missing against Gloucester and it was always going to be a big ask to get the better of the on-form hosts.

There was a setback for Edinburgh before kick-off when they lost their captain, Ben Vellacott. The scrum-half couldn’t shake off an ankle injury and his place was taken by Charlie Shiel, with young McAlpine coming on to the bench. Magnus Bradbury took over captaincy duties.

They were further disrupted by the early departure of Douglas. The teenage flanker and recently capped Scotland international lasted only 21 minutes and he too seemed to be afflicted by an ankle issue. His place was taken by McConnell and it was a memorable moment for the Scotland Under-20 captain who was making his Edinburgh bow. He showed no signs of nerves, making a thumping tackle within minutes of coming on.

By this stage the visitors were already 7-0 behind as Santiago Carreras harnessed the wind to propel Gloucester forward. The Argentine full-back kicked a 10th-minute penalty to the corner rather than kick for goal and from the resulting lineout drive Seb Blake managed to touch down. Carreras kicked the conversion.

The wind was playing havoc and Carreras was exploiting it to the full, peppering the Edinburgh back field with some mighty punts. Matt Currie fumbled on one occasion, earning the derision of Kingsholm’s famous Shed, and there were several other handling errors.

Currie, to be fair, had been responsible for Edinburgh’s best move, embarking on a wonderful break from his own line but the move broke down when Nathan Sweeney couldn’t find a team-mate. Goosen then went close but his dive for the line left him a metre short.

Wes Goosen falls short with an attempt to score a try. | PA

It was the full-back who helped draw Edinburgh level four minutes before the break with a smart bit of play. He was tackled but managed to recover and power through to score. Crucially, he had released the ball after the initial tackle and Gloucester were caught napping. Ross Thompson’s conversion made it 7-7 at the turn.

A Carreras penalty nudged Gloucester ahead early in the second half and they continued to turn the screw. Their maul was a particularly effective weapon and Dodd was shown a yellow card as he tried to halt it.

Edinburgh were on the back foot and Sykes became the second visiting player to be sin-binned after making head-to-head contact with Gareth Anscombe as he tried to charge down the fly-half’s kick.

The second Gloucester try soon followed. Without Sykes’ defensive bulk Edinburgh were considerably weakened and the home side punished them again at the lineout maul, replacement lock Albert Tuisue scoring. Carreras couldn’t convert but Gloucester now had an eight-point advantage with 15 minutes remaining.

Edinburgh spent the final moments in the Gloucester 22 but couldn’t find a way through and eventually had to settle for a penalty on 80 minutes from Ben Healy which at least gave them a bonus point.

Albert Tuisue of Gloucester celebrates after scoring his side's second try. | Getty Images

Scorers and teams

Scorers: Gloucester: Tries: Blake, Tuisue. Con: Carreras. Pen: Carreras.

Edinburgh: Try: Goosen. Con: Thompson. Pen: Healy

Yellow cards: Dodd (Edinburgh, 51min), Sykes (Edinburgh, 61min).

Gloucester: S Carreras; C Wade, C Harris, M Llewellyn (W Butler 45), J Hathaway; G Anscombe (G Barton 62), C Englefield; V Rapava Ruskin (C Knight 71), S Blake (J Singleton 52), K Gotovtsev (A Fasogbon 57), A Clark (H Taylor 25; A Tuisue 57), M Alemanno, F Thomas, L Ludlow, R Ackermann.

Edinburgh: W Goosen; R McCann, M Currie, M Tuipulotu (J Lang 68), N Sweeney; R Thompson (B Healy 56), C Shiel (C McAlpine 70); B Venter, P Harrison (D Cherry 40), P Hill (D Rae 40), M Sykes, S Skinner (R Carmichael 70), T Dodd, F Douglas (L McConnell 21), M Bradbury.

Referee: Ludovic Cayre (Fra).