'We addressed the mood': Scottish rugby enters unchartered URC waters

Edinburgh Rugby are in uncharted waters at the top of the BKT URC having won their opening three league matches for the first time in more than a decade.

You have to go back to 2015 and the days of the old PRO12 for the last time the Scottish side kicked off with three successive victories.

Moreover, they are the only team in the competition to have won all of their matches so far this season.

They continued their dream start by claiming a 29-12 bonus point victory over their bogey side Zebre Parma out in Italy to back up triumphs over Ulster Rugby and the DHL Stormers.

The maximum haul was secured in the final minute of the game at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi as hooker Ewan Ashman went over for try number four.

United Rugby Championship

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Edinburgh

3

3

0

0

14

2

Glasgow

3

2

0

1

13

3

Bulls

3

2

1

0

11

4

Stormers

3

2

1

0

11

5

Sharks

3

2

1

0

10

6

Cardiff Rugby

3

2

1

0

9

7

Lions

3

2

1

0

9

8

Dragons RFC

3

1

1

1

9

9

Munster

3

1

1

1

9

10

Leinster

3

1

2

0

8

11

Ulster

3

0

1

2

8

12

Scarlets

3

1

2

0

7

13

Ospreys

3

1

2

0

6

14

Connacht

3

1

2

0

5

15

Benetton

3

0

2

1

5

16

Zebre

3

0

3

0

1

Coach Sean Everitt said: “It was very tough indeed. Zebre seem to be up for these games when we come to Parma.

“They’ve been our bogey side. We’ve only beaten them once in four outings, so we are very happy with the result.

“I’m just happy we were able to get a win and, on top of that, a bonus point.”

Edinburgh’s skipper Matt Currie, who opened the scoring from the centre, added: “It’s always really tough coming to Zebre.

“We’ve not had too much success here the past few seasons, so it was really important for us that we came out and played the game we wanted to play.

“It worked in the end, but we were definitely under pressure right to the 80th minute.

“Zebre are a team that keep coming, they never give up and we definitely felt that. We had to fight right to the very end to get that win.”

The Player of the Match award went to try-scoring No 8.

Magnus Bradbury who said: “We had a real long chat in the week about how we were going to play it.

“We’ve come here in the last couple of years and beaten Zebre one out of four times. So all we talked about was playing our DNA.

“We went off script and started doing our own thing and that’s when we put ourselves under pressure. But we doubled down on who we are and it paid off.”

It’s a Scottish one-two at the business end of the log with last season’s table toppers Glasgow Warriors now up to second place.

They made amends for drawing at home to Ulster Rugby in Round 2 by claiming a 36-19 bonus point win over Connacht Rugby at a wet and windy Scotstoun.

Skipper Sione Tuipulotu said: “We addressed the mood during the week.

“We were really disappointed after that Ulster game. We are not used to drawing or losing on this field and, to be honest, that draw really felt like a loss.

“I am happy about the way the boys bounced back, particularly the pack. Four maul tries really set the tone for the game. In weather like this, we need to rely on our pack and they did a massive job for us.”

The Vodacom Bulls have shot up to third after consigning the 10Bet Lions to a first defeat of the season, running in nine tries in a convincing 57-15 bonus point win at Pretoria’s Loftus Verfeld with No 8 Cameron Hanekom touching down twice.

Then come the DHL Stormers who won the other South African derby by beating the early season pacesetters, the Hollywoodbets Sharks, 39-22 in front of a crowd of 42,368 in Cape Town.

They touched down six times against the only team to have picked up maximum points from the first two rounds, with No 8 Hacjivah Dayimani grabbing a brace.

There was also a bumper crowd in Dublin with a 20,600 sell out at the Laya Arena for Leinster Rugby’s first BKT URC game at their newly redeveloped €52m RDS home.

The champions marked the occasion by claiming their opening win of the season, collecting maximum points in beating Cardiff Rugby 29-5 with fly-half Sam Prendergast named Player of the Match.

Elsewhere, the Ospreys beat the Dragons 38-31 in Friday night’s Welsh derby at Rodney Parade, while the Scarlets came from 21-7 down at half-time to beat Benetton Rugby 27-26.

Ulster Rugby also staged a revival after the break to draw for the second week in a row. Trailing 26-5 to Munster Rugby at the interval in Belfast, they ended up tying 26-26 with a Stuart McCloskey converted try bringing the sides level three minutes from time.