Edinburgh can't afford a repeat in France having 's**t the bed' against Ulster
In the wake of the recent head-wrecking Edinburgh loss to Ulster, a Guinness PRO14 semi-final they led 12-0 and then 19-7 and had firmly in their grasp right up until the last quarter, Richard Cockerill went through his players like a bull trampling a squirrel. The midweek review was brutal and sore. When the heat came on in the last throes when Ulster emptied their bench of internationals and their go-to men grabbed the match by the scruff, Edinburgh’s wilted.
Grant Gilchrist, on his 150th appearance, conceded back-to-back ruck penalties. Monumental try-scoring opportunities, chances that if converted would have put the game beyond doubt, were squandered. Edinburgh lacked the guile and the gumption and the composure to halt the waves of determined Ulstermen sweeping inexorably forward.
This was a fourth knockout defeat on Cockerill’s watch and of the grim quartet, it undoubtedly stung the most. They were heavily fancied and well in control. Edinburgh were insipid in their Challenge Cup quarter-final loss to Cardiff Blues two years ago, and nobody really expected them to turn over Munster at Thomond Park in the league the same season.
They were at the genesis of their transformation in those days, making their play-off debut in the Englishman’s first season at the helm. Edinburgh should have put the same opposition away in the Champions Cup last-eight a year later but were smothered and outsmarted before a raucous Murrayfield. Ruthlessness and street smarts – or a lack of them – told.
It is not as if Edinburgh are incapable of winning big games – they would hardly be in these positions at all if that were true. They have repeatedly seen off Glasgow Warriors, delivered against the Irish provinces in the PRO14 and Toulon and Montpellier in Europe.
European rugby is BACK and we've got that #FridayFeeling ?
After eight long months #ChallengeCupRugby makes its return with tonight's mouth-watering curtain-raiser ?
Get set for an absolute cracker as @BristolBears take on @dragonsrugby for a spot in the semi-finals ? pic.twitter.com/BViHKsEgOy
— EPCR Challenge Cup (@ChallengeCup_) September 18, 2020
But in the one-off, white-hot business of knockout rugby, they haven’t been able to get over the line. That is a serious issue. It suggests some degree of mental fragility, or at the very least naivete, is at play. If there is any consolation, it is that Edinburgh have an imminent opportunity for some measure of redemption. Against Bordeaux in the Challenge Cup quarter-final this Saturday, they can unleash a degree of angst, right a few of the wrongs of that Ulster capitulation.
The hosts, of course, no longer have Semi Radradra, quite possibly the finest player in the world today, to call upon. There isn’t a team on earth that wouldn’t miss Radradra, but Christophe Urios has recruited cleverly and retained almost all of his prime talent.
He still has the brilliance of Mathieu Jalibert, the young fly-half vying with Romain Ntamack for the French No10 jersey, Santiago Cordero, who could sidestep you in a straitjacket, Yann Lesgourges, Seta Tamanivalu and Remi Lamerat in his backline. Cameron Woki is among the foremost back rows in France, while captain Jefferson Poirot, Alexandre Flanquart and Wallabies Kane Douglas and Scott Higginbotham are vastly experienced internationals.
Urios has signed Ben Lam from the Hurricanes to add to that blistering firepower. The colossal Ben Tameifuna arrived from Racing 92, Guido Petti from Super Rugby finalists the Jaguares, and Joseph Dweba from a barnstorming season with the Cheetahs. All in all, it remains a truly formidable squad.
“If I do not get them to attack, I’m the king of idiots,” Urios famously said of the conjurers he oversees. Saturday’s XV shows how seriously Bordeaux are taking the Challenge Cup, and how badly they long to end an unfulfilling campaign with silverware. Jalibert, Lam, Petti, Douglas, Cordero, and Poirot all start.
When the Top 14 was abandoned in June, Bordeaux led the pack. They put away Clermont and Racing 92 on the road, cuffed Stade Francais by nearly 50 points, beat Toulon twice and were, over the course of the campaign, the premier team in France.
They came back from 13-3 down to draw with Edinburgh at Murrayfield in the pool stage and gave Cockerill’s men a walloping at the Stade Chaban-Delmas. The ferocity of their forwards and panache of their backs was too much for Edinburgh to handle on that day. Few teams storm the Chaban-Delmas, in fact. Last season, Bordeaux won all 13 home matches in the Top 14 and Europe. In the previous league campaign, only Toulouse and Castres prevailed at their south-west stronghold.
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Here's the 23 that travel to face @UBBrugby in tomorrow's @ERChallengeCup Quarter-Final – live on @btsport.
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— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) September 18, 2020
Cockerill has made seven changes to the team that lost the semi-final. Some big names are missing, chiefly Duhan van der Merwe, the mighty winger who is at the heart of so much of Edinburgh’s good work. The South African tops the competition charts for defenders beaten and metres made despite only playing in four of the six pool games. His injury-enforced absence is a giant blow.
Mark Bennett, too, leaves a sizeable hole in midfield, and perhaps most pivotal of all is the unavailability of Henry Pyrgos and Nic Groom, Cockerill’s two senior scrum-halves. At 22, Charlie Shiel makes only his third start, while 23-year-old Dan Nutton will earn his second professional appearance if introduced from the bench. Shiel has a huge amount to like about his game but this will be different from anything he has experienced.
In some ways, Cockerill and Urios are kindred spirits, gnarled former hookers from the same era, vehemently unafraid to say what they think. The Frenchman refused to join the Top 14 coaches’ WhatsApp group during lockdown because, in his opinion, too many of them are “faux-culs”, loosely translated as fake-asses. Cockerill spoke of how Edinburgh “s**t the bed” against Ulster.
“If you were at the review on Wednesday, you would be like, ‘Right, we don’t want to be here again, we don’t want to be in this moment again where we’re getting shouted at and we’re hawking the same things that we’ve been through for the last four years’,” said Blair Kinghorn, Edinburgh’s full-back, last week.
“Everyone’s sick and tired of it. We’ve got to the point where… I just feel like we’ve turned a corner. We’ll see at training, but I feel like we know that in these big games it’s just different. Small things matter. Some things you can get away with – just say it was a normal league game, Ulster might not have chased that hard because they would have had a losing bonus point. We switched off maybe. Whereas in a big knockout game like that it’s all the little things that matter, and they add up.”
For Edinburgh on Saturday, another hard luck story, and another blistering review, will not do.
Bit of a scare before Bordeaux departure https://t.co/oZo3E4iv5m
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 18, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Yip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
114 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
1 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
114 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
4 Go to commentsWell one thing about World Cup knock out rounds and Ireland is very clear: they won’t be getting ahead of themselves in ‘27! Because making it beyond the QF is well and truly ‘IN THEIR HEADS’ now…😉
114 Go to comments