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Fourteen-man Edinburgh stun Glasgow, Connacht and Benetton win derbies
By Peter Thompson
Chris Dean's last-gasp try ended Glasgow Warriors' 100 per cent Pro14 record as Edinburgh snatched a dramatic 18-17 win despite Simon Berghan's early red card, while Connacht and Benetton Treviso also claimed derby victories on Saturday.
It was looking bleak for Edinburgh in the first leg of the 1872 Cup when Berghan was dismissed only six minutes in after the prop was deemed to be guilty of a stamp at the breakdown.
Glasgow were already leading at that point courtesy of an early try from Huw Jones, which Ruaridh Jackson converted, and were 7-3 up at the end of a lacklustre first half after Sam Hidalgo-Clyne got the home side on the board with a penalty.
Conference A leaders Glasgow were 17-6 to the good when Scott Cummings raced over 15 minutes into the second half and looked set to make it 11 Pro14 wins out of 11 following back-to-back losses against Montpellier, which left them facing a European Champions Cup exit.
Yet Edinburgh came storming back despite being a man down, Nathan Fowles scoring their first try 19 minutes from time before the final twist when Dean powered his way over in the corner to win, to the delight of the majority of a record 1872 Cup crowd of 23,833.
Connacht hammered Ulster 44-16 at the Sportsground, where Ultan Dillane scored two of six tries for the 2016 Pro12 champions.
Eoghan Masterson, Bundee Aki, Tiernan O'Halloran and Jarrad Butler were the other try-scorers for Connacht as Ulster suffered only a third Pro14 loss and the home side went fourth in Conference A.
Angelo Esposito scored a try in each half for a Benetton side that saw off Zebre 27-14 at the Stadio Monigo.
Zebre had flanker Johan Meyer sent off in the second half as they slipped to a eighth defeat of the Pro14 campaign.
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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