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Hamish Watson: 'We came off the pitch probably feeling a bit like we lost'
By PA
Hamish Watson admitted Edinburgh still have plenty to work on even though they made it five wins in seven matches by grinding out a 19-15 victory at home to in-form Ospreys on Friday.
The experienced flanker scored his side’s only try of the night in the 17th minute and team-mate Ben Healy kicked three penalties as the Scots opened up a 16-3 interval lead. However, the Welsh outfit came back strongly after the break, with tries from forwards Sam Parry and Morgan Morris cranking up the pressure on Edinburgh, who ultimately clung on for victory.
“It was a bit of a weird game,” Watson said. “The first half went to plan, we executed the game-plan well, played the game in their half and kicked the points when they were on offer.
“Second half we started well but we knew Ospreys weren’t going to go away. They’re a really good team and they’ve been on a five-game winning streak so we knew they were going to keep in the game.
“They played the second half better than us so we came off the pitch probably feeling a bit like we lost. We got the four points and we’re sitting in the right half of the table so it was a good win against a tough team but there’s still a lot to work on.
“We’re building something but as anyone who has watched our last two games will have seen, we’ve still got a lot to do. We’ve got a few weeks now to get it right before we go to South Africa for two tough games (against Stormers and Sharks).”
Before then, Watson is set to rejoin the Scotland squad on Monday to prepare for the closing Six Nations matches away to Italy and Ireland.
The 32-year-old was omitted from Gregor Townsend’s initial pool for the championship but received a belated call-up in the build-up to the third match against England.
“I’m enjoying my rugby,” said Watson. “It was nice to come back and get a bit more game time for Edinburgh.
“It was good to be back in the Scotland squad for the England game. The boys are obviously going pretty well so it’s good to be back in the squad. We’re back in on Monday.”
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Latest Comments
Honestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
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