by John Preece
Ospreys travelled up from Wales to play Edinburgh in a Magners League encounter at Murrayfield intent on breaking a four year drought of wins in the Capital, never having won since 2007.
Ospreys opened the scoring, with two penalties in the first six minutes, and certainly looked as if they had the measure of the Edinburgh side. A penalty from Greg Laidlaw a few minutes later, pulled Edinburgh up to within three, before Dan Biggar ran over for the first try after 14 minutes, which he converted himself to put Ospreys 13-3 ahead.
At this point in the game Edinburgh seemed to waken up and a series of attacks on the Welsh line lead to No. 8 David Denton, being within a whisker of scoring a return try, the TMO ruling a knock-on over the line.
Edinburgh continued to take the game to the opposition, which eventually paid off after another period of attacking play, with a try near the corner from Jim Thompson (pictured) on the 36 minute mark. Laidlaw scored with the kick to leave the half-time score Edinburgh 10, Ospreys 13
The home side continued in the same vein in the second half and were awarded a penalty after eight minutes, which Laidlaw again slotted home. Biggar had a chance almost straight away for the Ospreys, but missed to the left of the posts. However, yet another penalty award a few minutes later, which resulted in a yellow card and 10 minutes off for Edinburgh’s Lozada, was successful and put the Welsh back in the lead by three. Despite being a man down, Edinburgh launched into the Ospreys at a furious pace and were rewarded with another try from wing, Tim Visser. Once again, Laidlaw put away a difficult kick to put Edinburgh 20-16 ahead.
With 10 minutes of the match remaining, the visitors appeared to get a second wind and mounted a sustained attack on the Edinburgh line, held out by stout defence from the home team, who then managed to break down the field and force an error from the visitors to give Laidlaw a chance at another kick for goal. The Edinburgh stand-off duly scored to take the final tally to Edinburgh 23, Ospreys 16, thus ending the Welsh side’s seven game winning streak.
Photo and Report – John Preece
Website – http://www.jlp-photography.co.uk/ProfessionalSports-Season2010
