Edinburgh V Connacht

First topic message reminder :

Head Coach Richard Cockerill has issued a rallying call to the Edinburgh public, to come out in force to support their team in the first home game of the Guinness PRO14 season against Connacht at BT Murrayfield tomorrow night (Friday 14 September, kick-off 7.35pm).

“It would be great to have a big crowd and get in front of our own supporters, so we’ve got to match their passion with a fine performance – that’s going to be really important for us.”

Cockerill has made three changes to the side that faced Ulster in Belfast last weekend, with flanker Hamish Watson, wing Duhan van der Merwe and centre James Johnstone all coming into the starting XV.

Scotland star Watson – who was unavailable for selection last weekend due to the birth of his first child – is named in the back-row with fellow international Luke Hamilton who switches to to No.8 in the place of the injured, Bill Mata.

Mark Bennett drops out of contention due to injury and is replaced by Johnstone in midfield, whilst Van der Merwe returns to action after missing out on the trip to Belfast last weekend.

The South African winger is named in the place of Tom Brown, who fails to recover after picking up a knock against Ulster.

On his selection, Cockerill, said: “I know we’ve had two losses from two games, but we’re in a good place and that doesn’t tell the whole story.There’s a great spirit amongst the camp.

We just need to make sure that we put in the same performance against Connacht as we did against Ulster, and we’ll be fine.

“Connacht have had a pretty good start. They just lost to Glasgow, but could have won that at the death and then they had a pretty big win against Zebre last weekend.

“They’re playing some really good stuff. Andy Friend seems to have had a really big impact on them and they’re playing with the ball in hand.”

In the back-three, Blair Kinghorn starts at fullback alongside Scotland international winger Dougie Fife and the once again fit, Van der Merwe.

Matt Scott – who makes his first Edinburgh appearance at BT Murrayfield since May 2016 – is joined in the midfield by Johnstone, whilst Henry Pyrgos and Simon Hickey both make their home debuts after being named at half-back.

An unchanged front-row sees captain Stuart McInally pack down alongside WP Nel and Pierre Schoeman, with Ben Toolis and Grant Gilchrist continuing their partnership in the boiler room.

The aforementioned Watson returns to action at openside flanker, as Hamilton and Jamie Ritchie complete the back-row.

Elsewhere, 23-year-old back-row Magnus Bradbury is once again fit and named amongst the replacements, whilst summer recruit Juan Pablo Socino is also included on the bench, and if called upon will make his competitive debut for the club.

Secure your tickets for tomorrow's clash at BT Murrayfield here. Don't forget that U16's go free with an Adult Silver Ticket purchaser!



Edinburgh team to face Connacht at BT Murrayfield in the Guinness PRO14 on Friday 14 September (kick-off 7.35pm) – live on Premier Sports.



15. Blair Kinghorn (66)



14. Dougie Fife (109)

13. James Johnstone (20)

12. Matt Scott (76)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (19)



10. Simon Hickey (2)

9. Henry Pyrgos (2)



1. Pierre Schoeman (2)

2. Stuart McInally (122) CAPTAIN

3. WP Nel (117)

4. Ben Toolis (90)

5. Grant Gilchrist (122)

6. Jamie Ritchie (50)

7. Hamish Watson (83)

8. Luke Hamilton (2)



Replacements: 16. Ross Ford (181); 17. Allan Dell (46); 18. Simon Berghan (50); 19. Fraser McKenzie (102). 20. Magnus Bradbury (53); 21 Sean Kennedy (62); 22. Jaco van der Walt (18); 23. Juan Pablo Socino*

Rain coming down. Same pattern of play to first half.

All the more important we got 10 points up then

An up and under which you don't compete for is called kicking the ball away....

Bad drop from VDW with line begging...

Berghan and Bradbury on. Come on Magnus!

Just turned down 3 points...line out 5...

Could be a pushover try. Hard to see if it was grounded.

Our try conversion stats will make grim reading!

Try...

Schoeman

Jaco converts

We want 4!

That should be the game won now, just see if they can get a bonus point, there is still plenty of time.

Bradbury is throwing himself about!

Connacht beginning to run out of steam at all after their first half heroics?

Connacht try. Classic counter punch. We should have buried them by now.

Baws

Another poor lineout. Cockerill will be going nuts.

Connacht playing better....

Our basics just haven't been good enough so far this season

Edinburgh now defending...

A sense of things unravelling...

We'll do well to just take 4 points from this. Connacht have been relentless. Not much devil, but totally committed. It's like a graveyard here.

On the ropes...

Kickable penalty to Connacht. Going to be a close finish.

17-10. 5 minutes to play.

Penalty to Connacht. Edinburgh right back on defence.

Scrum to Edinburgh on the Edinburgh 22. Hanging on for dear life...

Edinburgh penalty. 2 minutes left. Gilchrist is MOTM. No idea why.

17-10 final score. We made a real meal of that!!!

Ritchie or Watson should have been MOTM.

Well a win's a win, but it's really disappointing how difficult we made that for ourselves. Plenty to work on.

Connacht thoroughly earned their BP!

Good game. Well done Edinburgh with first win on the board. Friend won’t be too sad coming away with a LBP.

Serious relief to have held on for the win, very strong finish from Connacht! Good to get a first win on board, hopefully that settles some nerves and gives us something to build on. Thought Ritchie played very well

Pot Hale wrote:Good game. Well done Edinburgh with first win on the board.  Friend won’t be too sad coming away with a LBP.

He will be kicking himself for having rested his best 2 scrummaging props.

Scrum was the difference between both teams in this game.

Loads to work on. Lineout was poor, as was accuracy at breakdown. Hamilton was a bit of a passenger. Big on effort but low on impact.

At 17-0 we should have been smarter.

To be fair if VDM had caught the ball we would have been home and hosed at 24-0.

Not sure Edinburgh does home and hosed!!

https://theoffsideline.com/cockerill-slams-officials-as-edinburgh-record-first-win/

Cockers not happy with the reffing!

Didn't see the match but seems Connacht have there fight back this year.

I know where he's coming from, but by Pro14 standards the reffing wasn't too bad. There could have been a second yellow but I didn't see an obvious offence to ping an individual. Connacht were street smart under the cosh, no question.

I see cockers point (shocker).
The reffing in the prem annoys me but the Pro 14 is even worse.

And people say the ref are accessed after every game but what are the reprimands for wrong calls? Nothing because their is no investment in refs by the comps or unions.

I think he thinks that they pulled down the maul for the second Edinburgh try and it should have been a penalty try and a man in the bin.

Ref took the easy option and just gave them the try.

I'm sure he has a point to an extent, and it's much easier to complain about the ref when you win (last week being a prime example) but I hope it doesn't detract from a poor performance in a lot of ways. It's not the ref's fault we butchered so many chances and it's not the ref's fault we gave Connacht easy ways back into the game with messed up lineouts and mistakes. If we'd taken even a quarter of our opportunities in their 22 we would have had the BP by 60 minutes.

Huge credit to Connacht though - for all this talk of the shackles being off this season, they were brutally physical and not nearly as open as you would expect.

I was right next to that maul. Although there were Connacht forwards on the floor, it really didn't look like a clear cut pull down to me. A weirder call was a Connacht scrum penalty in the first half, which was unfathomable, plus the Connacht defence could have bee pinged numerous times for offside. Thing is, the officials weren't on it so fair play Connacht for continuing to push it.

The lineout is certainly on us. No excuses to mess up the set piece as often as we did. Just kept on letting Connacht back into things.

More from Cockerill here - it was quite the rant!

Interesting the ref supposedly admitted his mistakes that cost us the ulster game. I'm not sure Cockerill should be revealing these things in public though as it will mean refs in the future just won't tell him anything after games.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45527958

RDW_Scotland wrote:More from Cockerill here - it was quite the rant!

Interesting the ref supposedly admitted his mistakes that cost us the ulster game. I'm not sure Cockerill should be revealing these things in public though as it will mean refs in the future just won't tell him anything after games.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45527958

Agreed. And what’s more, he’s disclosing selective comments. I hate this kind of shoite from coaches. If the agreement is feedback is given confidentially then stick to the agreement. Otherwise, it’ll be a free for all after every game.

Poor form from Cockerill. He had a reputation for this at Tigers as well.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Poor form from Cockerill.  He had a reputation for this at Tigers as well.

He has generally keep himself quite reigned in during his Edinburgh stay so far, I think tonight was the straw that broke him though and he just could not hold it in any longer!

He is always entertaining!