Aironi 25 - 19 Edinburgh: Italians brush off dismal visitors

A MISERABLE weekend for the Scottish clubs was completed in the Italian backwater of Viadana yesterday as Edinburgh slipped up against Aironi.

Just as Glasgow had done the previous night against Treviso, Michael Bradley’s side had to be content with a losing bonus point as their Italian job went horribly wrong. Aironi, with just one league victory to their name since their inception last season, outscored their visitors three tries to two, and it took a late penalty by debutant Harry Leonard to salvage even a consolation point.

Kyle Traynor and Tim Visser did manage to cross the line for Edinburgh but as Bradley conceded, they were well outplayed for large portions of the game.

“Aironi fully deserved their victory, they were much the better side,” said the former Ireland scrum-half. “They had better structure and scored some lovely tries. We were very poor, especially in the first half. Nothing really went right for us, and we were lucky to be within a score at half time.

“We chased the game well in the second half but Aironi were full value for their win on the day.”

With their set-piece all over the place, the writing was on the wall for Edinburgh inside the opening quarter and it was no surprise when they fell behind to Naas Olivier’s opening try after 15 minutes, which he also converted.

Edinburgh rallied for a spell thereafter, with Greig Laidlaw landing a penalty before Traynor’s 22nd-minute try briefly put them ahead. David Denton, Roddy Grant and Lee Jones were mainly responsible for this timely resurgence, but it didn’t last long and Aironi hit back with two tries of their own, one either side of half-time.

Both tries came about in similar fashion, with Edinburgh coughing up possession in the scrum, failing to compete in the lineout, and being punished for some weak tackling in midfield.

Pocket-sized scrum-half Tito Tibaldi scored first, three minutes before half time. The considerably less diminutive figure of Nick Williams then added Aironi’s third try, four minutes after the break. Cue a raft of substitutions by Bradley. Off came Steven Turnbull, Greig Laidlaw and Gregor Hunter. On came Grant Gilchrist, Chris Leck and Harry Leonard.

The change in personnel sparked a change in momentum, as Edinburgh, for a while at least, hit top gear. Leonard added a penalty and Visser a try after some excellent approach play Jones, Denton and James King had stretched the home defence.

Trailing 19-16 with a quarter of the game still remaining, victory did not look beyond Edinburgh, but they were perhaps guilty of chasing the game too hard and coughed up a plethora of scoring opportunities to their hosts, who were unlucky not to cross for a bonus-point try.

Instead, they were happy to pick off their points, with Olivier notching a penalty and a drop goal to keep Edinburgh at bay, before Leonard’s late consolation score.

Scorers: Aironi: Tries: Olivier, Tibaldi, Williams. Cons: Olivier 2. Pen: Olivier. Drop goal: Olivier. Edinburgh: Tries: Traynor, Visser. Pens: Laidlaw, Leonard 2.

Aironi: R Trevisan; S Sinoti, R Quartaroli, G Pizarro, G Venditti; N Olivier, T Tebaldi; M Aguero (A De Marchi 58), R Santamaria (capt), F Staibano (L Redolfini 58); J Furno, G Biagi (J Sole 60); F Viljoen (S Favaro 54), N Cattina, N Williams.

Edinburgh: T Brown; L Jones, J Thompson (M Scott 65), J King, T Visser; G Hunter (H Leonard 55), G Laidlaw (C Leck 55), K Traynor (R Hislop 41), S Lawrie (A Walker 75), S Knight (L Niven 42); S Cox, S Turnbull (G Gilchrist 55), D Denton, R Grant, S McInally (H Watson 75).

Referee: Peter Allan. Attendance: 2,500.