The 'slightly disappointing' factor in Edinburgh's defeat to Bath

Sean Everitt told Edinburgh to take the positives from their spirited EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Bath as they bid to scramble into the United Rugby Championship play-offs.

The men from the Scottish capital went down 39-24 to the runaway Gallagher Premiership leaders at The Hive on Saturday after briefly leading 17-12 in the third quarter. All of Bath’s six tries were scored by forwards.

After the end of their European adventure, Edinburgh – who are currently 10th in the URC – must now rouse themselves to try and climb into the top eight, with two games of the regulation season remaining against Connacht and Ulster.

“Bath have so much power and quality in their pack,” said Everitt. “You can see it throughout their forwards and the guys they can bring off the bench.

“We showed so much fight to keep them relatively quiet in terms of their back line. But they can hurt you in so many different ways.

United Rugby Championship

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Leinster

16

14

2

0

67

2

Glasgow

16

11

5

0

59

3

Bulls

16

12

4

0

58

4

Sharks

16

11

5

0

53

5

Cardiff Rugby

16

8

7

1

46

6

Stormers

16

8

8

0

45

7

Scarlets

16

8

7

1

43

8

Benetton

16

8

7

1

41

9

Munster

16

7

9

0

41

10

Edinburgh

16

6

9

1

39

11

Ospreys

16

7

8

1

38

12

Ulster

16

7

9

0

38

13

Lions

16

7

9

0

35

14

Connacht

16

5

11

0

35

15

Zebre

16

5

10

1

29

16

Dragons RFC

16

1

15

0

9

“It’s slightly disappointing that we couldn’t impose our own game on them more, but Bath are a quality side. They are top of the Premiership for a reason.

“There are a lot of positives we can take from this and we’re going to need that over the next few weeks in the URC.”

Everitt expects Bath to go on and claim their first European trophy since 1998 when they contest the final in Cardiff later this month.

“I think Bath could go all the way now,” he said. “We defended so well to keep them out and that’s credit to our boys. But they are going to be very difficult to stop in the final.”

Bath director of rugby Johann van Graan said: “It’s our third final in a row if you think Premiership, Premier Cup, and that’s just testament to the whole playing group.

“We said on the 11th of July 2022 we’re going to start on a journey and we’re going to try and get better while enjoying it and creating the way that we want to play.

“You fight so hard to get into a semi-final first, and we took that opportunity. Now we can look forward to a final in three weeks’ time in Cardiff which is another first for us as a group. We’ve gone through quite a few firsts so great opportunity ahead.”