Edinburgh eye French league leaders after topping PRO14 Conference B
Edinburgh stand-off Jaco Van Der Walt says his side are heading to France on a high after storming to the top of their Guinness PRO14 division.
The Murrayfield outfit claimed a 61-13 victory over Southern Kings on Saturday to take over at the summit of Conference B.
And a victory over Bordeaux Begles – the Top 14 league leaders – next weekend will see them also take the lead in their European Challenge Cup pool.
South African Van Der Walt – who racked up his half-century of appearances for Richard Cockerill’s team at the weekend – told Edinburgh’s Twitter account: “What a great win for us and what a way to celebrate your 50th cap.
“Kings were a man down so it was easy for us to throw the ball about. It’s nice for us to get those points and go top of the conference.
“It’s a nice way for us to end before this break as we go back into Europe. There’s still a lot of games left so we need to keep our focus and keep working hard.”
The Isuzu Southern Kings were reduced to 12 men at one stage against Edinburgh after receiving a red card in the opening minutes of the clash, but despite this, they managed to produce a competitive first half display.
“I don’t have many (games) left and this gave me a chance to gain respect from the players." @PetrusduPlessis loving life in the prop lanehttps://t.co/cxe6KY3S87
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 5, 2020
The numerical disadvantage, however, eventually cost them as they went down 61-13 at Murrayfield.
They were then reduced to 13 players in the second half when De-Jay Terblanche (prop) left the field due to a concussion, and later found themselves down to 12 men when Aston Fortuin (lock) received a yellow card for infringing in a maul close to the tryline.
Isuzu Southern Kings coach Robbie Kempson was pleased with his team’s effort, although he admitted the numerical disadvantage killed off any chance his side had.
“We did exceptionally well in the first 50 minutes with 14 men, but the wheels came off when we had uncontested scrums,” said Kempson. “Being down to 13 and then to 12 against one of the best sides in the competition, you are always going to be on the back-end of a hiding.”
As our series moves to the @PRO14Official, we turn to the @ospreys. They might be experiencing a rough patch right now but they've had some stellar names in Ospreylia in the noughties. @rhigarthjones selects her 15 for 10 ???? https://t.co/16wf9syWVR
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 5, 2020
The coach, however, was positive about the strides his side had taken after a month off.
“In the first half, in particular, when we were down to 14, we managed to keep Edinburgh very close,” he said. “We had one opportunity in the second half to score a try and unfortunately we didn’t take that. If we had taken that it would have brought things a little closer for the players.
“But we have come on in leaps and bounds from where we were.
“This game was an anomaly; you are never going to beat any side with 12 men on the park at any stage. The way this team has grown in the past six months has been impressive. The coaches we have brought in have made a difference and there is certainly a belief that we can take another step forward despite the unfortunate result.”
– Press Association/additonal reporting PRO14
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments