Edinburgh Rugby reaction: youthful vigour and set-piece dominance praised as hosts go two from two
Teenager from Peebles comes up with match-winning moment
There is a youthful vigour about Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh squad and it was the youngest of their match-day 23 who came up with the winning moment as they beat the Stormers 17-13 at Hive Stadium.
Rory McHaffie is only 19 and was the hero of the hour as he collected a bouncing ball off the floor and finished in the corner.
Everitt, the Edinburgh head coach, gave the Scotland Under-20 winger his debut off the bench in last week’s win over Ulster and trusted him again against the Stormers when Matt Currie had to go off for a head injury assessment. The teenager from Peebles didn’t let him down.
“He was a guy that we had earmarked before he had come back from the Junior World Cup that he was going to be part of the senior squad because of his versatility, but he's also a dangerous player, he's got good feet,” said Everitt.
Belief can be more important than experience
“It's great that these youngsters get a win over a team like this and I was just saying earlier that the belief that you've seen tonight is sometimes more important than experience.”
There was another strong performance from scrum-half Hector Patterson and also notable performances from the bench from fellow academy graduates Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Tom Currie and Euan McVie.
It’s now two wins out of two for Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship this season, following the away victory over Ulster in Belfast where Everitt’s side had to withstand a late comeback. It was a different story against the Stormers, as the home side trailed 13-10 with 14 minutes remaining before finding a different way to win.
Massive character
“There's massive character in this group but last week it was the other way around when we had a fight at the end to get the win whereas this week we had to work our way up the field to get the try. But we started getting momentum on the short side and we built pressure on them and it was good to have Tom Currie coming back on after the yellow-card as well when we were under the pump.
“I'm just extremely proud of the boys and the character that they show and the fight that they showed for Edinburgh tonight.”
Edinburgh had lost Freddy Douglas to the sin-bin in the 63rd minute but weathered that particular storm as well as the try by Stormers No 8 Hacjivah Dayimani which put the visitors in front.
Edinburgh’s sub prop Paul Hill had forced his way over for the first try early in the second half but had to fight to regain control after Dayimani’s score.
Lineout dominance
They disrupted the Stormers lineout all night, nullifying one of the visitors’ key weapons on a windy evening at the Hive. Everitt gave the credit to forwards coach Stevie Lawrie and lineout jumper Liam McConnell as the South African side won only 57 per cent on their own throw.
“The use their lineout to get entries and it allows them to get penalties and scrums,” said Everitt. “And with the pack that they have, they tend to dominate opposition, so we knew we had to try and disrupt them at source. I thought Steve Lawrie and obviously Liam, who was their main contributor, destroyed their set-piece.
“They even went for poles at one stage in the game. So, we really got under their skin. It was a really, really brave performance from the boys tonight.”
“We're very happy with the result,” added Everitt. “We knew we had a fight against a really good Stormers team that played well last week against Connacht. They posed a massive set-piece threat and I knew that if we could contain them and put phases of play together we would have them in trouble.
“But it was a difficult night in the conditions. I know the wind died down but it was really difficult in the first half and obviously with their kicking game they struggled and we were able to get some entries but not accurately enough.”
Seabelo Senatla, the Stormers winger, was yellow-carded for his part in trying to stop Edinburgh’s first try and Douglas followed him into the sin bin three minutes later. The flanker had won a good turnover in the first half but seemed to get on the wrong side of referee Eoghan Cross thereafter.
“We'll go and have a look at it,” said Everitt. “You've got to push your boundaries at the breakdown and your opensides do. Sometimes teams that go hard at the ball give away more penalties for the more aggressive game. So, we'll go and have a look and see where we could have done better and that could be in the tackle.
“Maybe we've got to roll quicker for Freddy to be able to get his hands on, so that could be a work-on for us.”
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