Rugby – Edinburgh v Ospreys, Guinness PRO12
Edinburgh remain unbeaten following win at BT Murrayfield
A fairly dreary first half was only enlivened by Edinburgh coming from behind to lead just before the break, only to lose the lead to a third penalty from the Ospreys.
The visitors took an early lead with a second go at a penalty in the fifth minute. The first attempt from No. 10, Sam Davies, struck the post but Edinburgh gave away an offside penalty trying to field the rebound which Davies knocked over for a 3-0 lead.
The following 13-14 minutes of the match were as poor as it’s probably possible to be with large periods spent kicking the ball back and forward from one end to the other. Davies had another pop at goal in the 18th minute to bring a bit of, relative, excitement back to the game, extending the Osprey’s lead to 6-0 in the process.
The match then seemed to come alive and both teams probed and pushed at the opposition before a string of penalties for Edinburgh in the Osprey’s 22 saw them lose a man to yellow and give Edinburgh a chance at scoring. For the best part of 10 minutes, the pack rolled and rumbled away, winning those penalties on the go, finally crossing the line from a rolling maul, only to have the TMO rule ‘held up’.
Eventually the pressure told and, from the back of another collapsed scrum, Edinburgh’s scrum-half, Sean Kennedy sent the defence the wrong way and slipped the ball to Phil Burleigh. The No. 10 made a bee-line for the try line and was almost tacked, but his momentum saw him through the final three metres to score the try. Greg Tonks – Man-of-the-Match – stepped up to score the conversion and put Edinburgh in the lead, only to see it snatched away seconds later with that 40th minute penalty from Davies.
Edinburgh started the second half much better than they had started the match and, once again, pressure on the opposition defence was rewarded with another Tonks penalty and a 10-9 lead.
By the 60th minute, Edinburgh were well in command of the game and another Tonks penalty, following an off-the-ball tackle and a yellow for the offender, took them up to 13-9.
The Ospreys were struggling with Edinburgh’s running and mauling game and only a fumble stopped the home side scoring their second try on the 70th minute.
However, four minutes later, the pressure finally told and prop, John Andress, was fired over the line by Roddy Grant and Hamish Watson for Edinburgh’s second. Tonks scored the conversion and, with five minutes to go, the home side were 20-9 ahead and heading for their third win in succession.
Images from the match will appear here early next week as The Edinburgh Reporter is off to (or ‘is at’…) the Scotland v South Africa World Cup match at Newcastle for, what will certainly be, a bruising encounter.