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Edinburgh made to work hard for Champions Cup win by Castres
By PA
Edinburgh added a five-point Heineken Champions Cup win to the losing bonus they earned at Saracens last Sunday, but they had to fight all the way before finally beating Castres 31-20.
The French side had supposedly selected a second string for the trip to the DAM Health Stadium but they came close to securing a try bonus themselves before eventually falling just short in the Pool A clash.
Edinburgh had to make a late change to their line-up when Duhan van der Merwe failed a fitness test on a minor ankle injury – however, the winger is expected to be fit for Friday’s match at Glasgow.
A high-tempo game remained scoreless until midway through the first half, when Edinburgh finally made their pressure tell, Bill Mata forcing his way over, with Emiliano Boffelli converting.
Castres hit back soon after. A scrum penalty went to touch, and when Pierre Colonna’s throw-in bounced off an arm and back into his path, he raced for the line then flopped over for an unconverted try.
The French side then took the lead after half an hour with another five-point score when scrum-half Julien Blanc finished on the right.
Edinburgh regained the lead through a penalty try, awarded after Quentin Walcker came in from the side and pulled the maul down. The loosehead prop was sin-binned for the offence but the 14 men had the last word in the first half when Julien Dumora found the target from a penalty to take the score to 14-13.
Edinburgh increased their lead early in the second half when Charlie Savala finished off from a pass by James Lang. The try, made possible by an excellent run from Luke Crosbie deep into the 22, was converted by Boffelli from in front of the posts.
The hosts were soon under renewed pressure but they got the bonus try when a James Lang kick ahead was fumbled by Martin Laveau then touched down by Ben Vellacott. Boffelli converted.
Castres hit back immediately, with Adrien Seguret dashing through a gap in the defence after Edinburgh failed to deal with the restart.
Ben Botica converted, but the home side weathered the storm, and a Boffelli penalty minutes from time completed the scoring.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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