'It was a bit of a dream really' - Edinburgh coach revels in instant transformation

For a team whose attack in recent seasons has invariably been described as clunky, stuttering or even moribund at times, Edinburgh’s transformation in Round One of the new United Rugby Championship season was as startling as it was welcome.

Four tries in a bonus-point, 34-29 win over Ulster in Belfast, two of them scintillating team scores involving multiple players and some dreamy handling, provided early evidence of a bright new dawn – hopefully not a false one – in the Scottish capital.

No wonder new attack coach Tim Sampson, one of three Australians brought into Sean Everitt’s re-modelled backroom team this summer, described Friday’s events at the Affidea Stadium as a “bit of a dream”.

Edinburgh only managed a try bonus point in five of their first 18 games last season. They picked up towards the end of the campaign, scoring four or more tries in four of their last five games, but overall their average tries-per-game slumped to a shade over three (3.08) compared to an average of 3.85 during Everitt’s second season in charge.

Sampson, the former Western Force head coach who arrived this summer after an impressive two-year stint as an assistant with the Fijian Drua, had a clear remit to reinvent a side which had conspicuously failed to capitalise with any regularity on the power of their pack and the box-office talents of Darcy Graham, Duhan van der Merwe and Wes Goosen in the back three.

None of those three stars, all currently out injured, were in Belfast on Friday, making the first 50 minutes – in which they roared into a 34-5 lead – all the more impressive.

“Yeah, a bit of a dream really,” said Sampson. “It was a nine-week pre-season with some new things installed around our framework and how we want to play the game. To go and deliver that for the majority of that game was very pleasing.

“I’m just happy for the lads. They embraced the game plan and what we’ve been installing. It was a bit of a dream to see some of the footie we played. Breaking it down in the review meeting, it was just the simple things, a big part of the foundations of our attack, which created the opportunities and line-breaks, so it was very pleasing.”

Edinburgh’s energy and intent were clear from the outset and yielded first-half tries for the outstanding Freddy Douglas and Mal Satala, giving them a healthy 20-7 lead at the interval.

The temptation at that point might have been to kick more, play the percentages and hold onto what they had. But a sign of a change in approach was evident barely a minute into the second half.

“That is simply sumptuous!” 🗣️

Hector Patterson grabs @EdinburghRugby‘s third try of the night and it’s the best of the lot so far 🏰 pic.twitter.com/NdUXWrspFn

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) September 25, 2026

Grayson, retrieving an Ulster kick on his own 22, opted to run it back at the hosts rather than put boot to ball. A powerful carry from prop Paul Hill got Edinburgh on the front foot and suddenly a four-on-three overlap emerged down the short-side on the right flank.
Scrum-half Hector Patterson, swiftly spotting the opportunity, missed out Grayson and arrowed a pass off his left hand from the base of the ruck directly to Kienan Higgins at 12.

Two short passes followed – Higgins to full-back Piers O’Conor, up in the line, then O’Conor to Matt Currie, the outside centre advancing on an out-to-in angle.
Currie took the tackle and immediately offloaded to Magnus Bradbury, the No.8 lurking in the outside channel. Soft hands from the Scotland back-rower popped up a pass for Satala to sprint onto down the right flank before the winger sent an inside pass to Patterson, picking a classic scrum-half’s support line to coast in from the Ulster 22.

“This is a glorious try…the timing of the passes, the pace in the attack…that is simply sumptuous!” purred Mark Robson in the Premier Sports commentary box.

There were more superlatives – “sensational again…some of Edinburgh’s play has been off the planet” – after Edinburgh’s fourth try, sparked by Grayson’s arcing break between two Ulster tacklers and deft offload to put O’Conor through a gap. Scrum-half Patterson again ran a supporting trail line to take an inside pass before showing superb composure and timing to send O’Conor over with an out-the-back-door offload.

It’s another superb @EdinburghRugby try! 🏰

Piers O’Conor goes over this time and the visitors are fully in control 👊 pic.twitter.com/OMIpbI6MEC

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) September 25, 2026

“This is the best Edinburgh have played in a number of years, with their attacking game and ambition,” declared former Scotland captain John Barclay. No doubt music to the ears of Sampson as he re-watched the game.

“One of the early conversations I had with Sean[Everitt] was just to get a bit more width into our attack, which creates more one-on-one opportunities around our ball carriers,” explained Sampson. “We measure one-on-ones versus one v twos – so two defenders on one ball carrier – and there’s some good stats coming through.

“So that was the main thing, getting more width in our attack. We’ve got some highly skilled players there and some good athletes through our forwards who can play a little bit wider, so that was the main thing I noticed early on. I was impressed.”

Orchestrating it all was new fly-half James Grayson, the former Northampton No.10 who excelled on his Edinburgh debut after two years in Japan with Sagamihara Dynaboars.

“James did a great job for us,” Sampson noted. “He had a clear mind on how we want to play the game around our whole attack philosophy and very good around how he wants to drive the team around the field as well, which is important.”

Inside him, 21-year-old scrum-half Hector Patterson carried on the strong impression he made in a breakthrough end to last season, scoring his third try – as well as contributing a stunning assist – in just his fifth senior start.

“Hector had a great pre-season block and he’s done a lot of training, a lot of metres or time on his feet,” Sampson said. “I think his game is showing the effort he puts in. He’s one of the hardest workers in the squad, pre-training, post-training. He’s hard on himself and that performance on Friday night was excellent.

“The forwards set a good platform for him in most of that game. Then having guys like James Grayson, Kienan Higgins, Matt Currie, Piers O’Conor outside of him – there’s good experience there. It’s important to have a good forward pack in front of him, but then good brains outside of him to help his game. His support lines in open play are world-class and that’s why he popped up for two tries with his inside support [runs].”

While Patterson has emerged while Ben Vellacott has been sidelined with a shoulder injury, the absence of Graham – out until Christmas with a torn bicep – and Van der Merwe also allowed Edinburgh-born Fijian wing Satala to showcase the rapid improvements to his game, particularly with some smart plays in defence.

“He took his opportunity and a lot of our positive outcomes were on the back end of Mal – just through hard work-rate, chasing contestable kicks and winning ball back for us,” Sampson said. “When he got the opportunity, ball in hand, he made good metres for us. There were a couple of outstanding defensive reads on the edge when they were really challenging us out of defence in the second half and Mal made some really good decisions, but also with pretty high contact.

“With someone like Mal and coaching Fijians previously, his belief is really important. They ride on confidence and you’ve got to be hard on them, but you’ve got to also put your arm around them and give them just clear directives around what you want as a coach – and they’ll go and deliver for you every day.”

The first big test of Edinburgh’s new attacking – and defensive – approach arrives on Friday when the Stormers, impressive winners over Connacht in Galway in Round One – visit The Hive.

“They’re a high collision team who love the physicality, but I think we can use that to our advantage as well,” Sampson added. “We’re just going to have to meet them front on.

“We can’t sit back on our heels in that opening quarter and just be suckers for punishment. We’ve got to meet fire with fire and we’ve got some nice plans around that which we installed today so hopefully you’ll see it Friday night.

“How we play tactically against these guys is going to be really important because we just can’t keep smashing up into a brick wall. We’ve got to be pretty smart there, otherwise it could be detrimental to the back end of the game if we blow ourselves up too early.”

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Edinburgh

11:45

2 Oct 26

Stormers

All Stats and Data