Everitt’s men stared French giants Toulon in the face and came away victorious in their first game of the European Champions cup.
Edinburgh 33 Toulon 20
Toulon made their intentions clear with the first three minutes with Jaminet returning a goal line drop out with a drop goal. This combined with the sheer ferocity of their pack; it was clear the French side were not taking this game lightly.
Ben White punctured Edinburgh’s defence for the first try of the night. It was a simple show and go for the Scottish scrum half after being excellently driven by the forwards to within a metre of the line.
The Hive erupted shortly after Edinburgh made their way to Toulon’s twenty two following multiple handling errors from both teams. A great line break by Ashman set them up for a few hard carries right under the posts until Schoeman eventually found a tiny gap between French arms to dot it down.
Sloppy defending, a questionable refereeing decision, and a sniping Ben white accumulates to a second Toulon score. Edinburgh appeared to be making similar mistakes as they felt the pressure of the Toulon pack when it entered their twenty two. Ben White simply tapped and went to dive on to the white wash.
It was the battle of the Bens tonight with Vellacott showing his counterpart how he operates. Toulon conceded the penalty for collapsing the scrum which gave Edinburgh the lineout. With the wheeling maul Schoeman broke off and gave a one handed offload to Vellacott who was waiting in the wings.
Cammy Scott closed the gap with a converted penalty kick five minutes before half time after Toulon gave yet another penalty away.
In the closing minutes of the first half two great chances were thrown away through individual errors. Darcy Graham made a tremendous break but unfortunately didn’t have the legs to go all the way. He hesitated and missed the teammate in open space to his left.
The halftime headline was not one of Toulon blowing away a scared Edinburgh team. It was an internal problem, multiple hasty decisions in positions of opportunity were wasted by Edinburgh.
As the half progressed it could be argued that Edinburgh were coping with Toulon’s attack – as long as it was outside of their own half.
HT: EDINBURGH 18 – 17 TOULON
The further into the second half the more it appeared Darcy Graham was not at his best with simple errors that could be avoided even in the conditions.
There were glimpses of this being reversed however with an unexpected burst of energy coming from Edinburgh. Paul Hill made a great break and offloaded it to Ashman who was brought down but popped it up for Graham to run it in for what they thought would give them the lead. Unfortunately, it was brought back to an earlier knock on by Graham form a high ball.
Momentum began to swing in Edinburgh’s favour with pressure being applied to the Toulon defence they won a penalty, and Cammy Scott slotted it to extend their lead. Toulon returned it to a one-point game with a penalty conversion of their own.
Another huge momentum shift came when the home side were awarded a penalty try. This was off the back of excellent work by Edinburgh to pin the Toulon on their own try line. Baptiste Serin grounded the ball giving Edinburgh a scrum which was brought down before the line resulting in a penalty try.
The knife was twisted in the last five minutes of the game after some great tactical kicking by Edinburgh forced Toulon to run the ball out of play five metres out. After an unsuccessful maul Edinburgh resorted to bashing it up with forward carries. With the Toulon side looking tired it seemed to be only a matter of time before they went over.
This was one of if not the best performance Edinburgh have produced under Sean Everitt. By no means was it squeaky clean, however, with a timid first half full of handling errors and questionable decisions.
A key factor in Edinburgh’s victory was how they utilised their kicking game. There were times it didn’t go to plan but for most of the time they used it very well to put Toulon on the back foot.
Edinburgh are sitting third place in pool two alongside Bath and Gloucester. The real test to show their quality will now be to back their performance up in round two next week when they play Castres away. They will then return to URC action on the twentieth in the first leg of the 1872 cup against Glasgow.
FT: EDINBURGH 33 – 20 TOULON
MOTM: LIAM McCONNELL
YELLOW CARDS –
EDINBURGH:
TOULON: DAVID RIBBANS (57”)
TRY SCORERS –
EDINBURGH: PIERRE SCHOEMAN (13”), BEN VELLACOTT (28”), PENALTY TRY (59”), B.VENTER (74”)
TOULON: BEN WHITE (5”, 20”),
ATTENDANCE: 7,008
REFEREE: MATTHEW CARLEY
Teams:
Edinburgh – P.SCHOEMAN, E.ASHMAN, O.BLYTH-LAFFERTY, M.SYKES, G.GILCHRIST, L.MCCONNELL, D.RICHARDSON, M.BRADBURY, B.VELLACOTT, C.SCOTT, D.VAN DER MERWE, J.LANG, W.GOOSEN, D.GRAHAM, H.PATERSON
Replacements – H.MORRIS, B.VENTER, P.HILL, G.YOUNG, F.DOUGLAS, C.SHIEL, R.THOMPSON, P.O’CONOR
Toulon – J-B.GROS, T.BAUBIGNY, K.SINCKLER, D.RIBBANS, B.ALAINU’UESE, L.LUDLAM, E.ABADIE, Z.MERCER, B.WHITE, P.GARBISI, M.FERTE, J.SINZELLE, N.BREX, G.DREAN, M.JAMINET
Replacements – TOEVALU, AMETLLA, PRISO, MEZOU, KARABA,SERIN, GARCIA, SMAILA
Scoring timeline (Edinburgh first): 0-3, 0-10, 3-10, 10-10, 10-17, 15-17, 18-17, HT: 18-17,21-17, 21-20, 28-20, FT: 33-20
