Edinburgh rack up eight tries in Connacht demolition job

Edinburgh ended their three-game losing run in some style against Connacht, scoring eight tries in a 56-8 United Rugby Championship victory at the DAM Health Stadium.

Blair Kinghorn orchestrated proceedings from stand-off, and Argentina international Emiliano Boffelli was on devastating form with the boot, converting all of his team’s tries in their biggest URC win of the season so far.

Curiously, given how the game turned out, Connacht dominated the opening half-hour and might easily have scored more than eight points.

Jack Carty opened the scoring with a penalty and then Peter Sullivan did well to scoop a low pass off the deck and touch down in the right corner, but they passed up several chances to add to their lead, especially when Edinburgh number eight Mesu Kunavula was in the sin bin for a high tackle.

After playing second fiddle for so long, Edinburgh burst into life in the 10 minutes before the interval, scoring three tries.

Kinghorn laid on the first for Boffelli after Glen Young had stolen line-out ball.

Henry Immelman then burst through for the second after good work by Chris Dean, and hooker Dave Cherry marked his 50th appearance for the team by getting the third from a line-out drive.

With Boffelli converting all three, that gave Mike Blair’s team a 21-8 lead at the break. They still had some work to do in order to secure the win, and went about it with a will straight from the restart.

Within minutes Kinghorn got the bonus-point try after a speedy one-two with number eight Ben Muncaster. The fly-half soon provided the scoring pass for the fifth, finished off by Ramiro Moyano.

When Immelman scored again from a floated pass by Dean, there were still 20 minutes to play. There was little or no life left in Connacht by that time, however, and they conceded again less than 10 minutes later when Young finished off from close range.

Edinburgh academy prospects Rudi Brown and Jamie Campbell came on for their debuts late on, and replacement scrum-half Ben Vellacott rounded off a highly successful night for his team with a solo try minutes from time.