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Edinburgh slay Saracens in European Challenge Cup campaign
By PA
Edinburgh began their European Challenge Cup campaign with an impressive 21-18 victory over Saracens at the StoneX Stadium.
Tries from Ramiro Moyano and WP Neil, together with three penalties and one conversion from Emiliano Boffelli, secured a crucial win against their Gallagher Premiership opponents.
Alex Goode and Andy Christie crossed for Saracens and Manu Vunipola kicked two penalties and a conversion.
Mike Blair’s men held on for victory ahead of their double-header against Glasgow later this month.
Dragons let slip a nine-point lead to go down 22-16 at Perpignan, who made the most of the Welsh region losing Tavis Knoyle and Adam Warren to the sin-bin in the second half to claim victory.
Jamie Roberts’ 73rd-minute try, converted by Sam Davies who finished with 11 points, gave Dragons hope of a late recovery but the French side held on.
In-form London Irish enjoyed a better night in France as they defeated Pau 33-17 to claim a five-point haul in their European opener.
Agustin Creevy and Olly Cracknell both scored two tries each for Irish after the Gallagher Premiership side – coming into the game on a four-match winning streak – had taken the lead through an 11th-minute penalty try.
Pau got to within touching distance at 26-17 in the closing stages but the Exiles slammed the door on them through Cracknell’s second try with the clock in the red.
Also on Saturday, Biarritz beat Zebre 26-13 thanks to tries from Antoine Erbani, Baptiste Erdocio, Ushangi Tcheishvili and Billy Scannell.
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Latest Comments
I think the majority of their yellow cards were for cynical infringements instead of repeated infringements.
Go to commentsSpeed of game and stoppages in play remain a problem SK. Set piece oriented teams generally want a lower ball in play time, and they have various strategies to try and get it - legal and illegal!
They want to maximize their power in short bursts, then recover for the next effort. Teams like Bristol are the opposite. They want high ball in play to keep the oppo moving, they want quicker resolution at set pieces, and if anyone is to kick the ball out, they want it to be the other team.
The way rugby is there will always be a place for set piece based teams, but progression in the game is associated far more with the Black Ferns/Bristol style.
The scrum is a crucible. We have still not solved the problem of scrums ending in FKs and penalties, sometimes with yellow cards attached. A penalty ought not to be the aim of a scrum, a dominant SP should lead to greater attacking opportunity as long as the offence is not dangerous but technical in nature.
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