GUNNERS PREVAIL IN BASEMENT BATTLE
Edinburgh Rugby: 24 (3) Newportgwentdragons: 20 (10)
In this, their final home match of the season, Edinburgh faced a visiting Newport outfit whose losing run was only marginally worse than their own. Two teams low on confidence but one would emerge with a bit of a boost in the dog days of the campaign.
After things had looked decidedly unpromising with 10 minutes to go, the Embramen managed to score three late, late tries to come away with their first win in ten matches. The excitement of those late moments more than made up for the extreme frustration of the preceding 70 minutes.
And not only was there the welcome sight of the returning John Hardie, but there were also fleeting glimpses of Cornell du Preez's silky offloading skills. One felt that Glenn Bryce's Man of the Match award was a mite generous, but he nonetheless had a good game in attack and defence in teh outside centre berth.
Jason Tovey put the home side ahead on nine minutes with a penalty; just reward for good work by Watson in the loose. The Gunners were enjoying good territory and possession in the early exchanges.
But things started to go awry later in the first period. If incoming head coach 'Jarvis' Cockers really had had a hand in tonight's selection, as claimed in the media, he'd have been questioning his own judgement as the familair litany of silly penalties and unforced errors began.
On the half hour, Pat Howard scored in the left corner to put the visitors ahead. It was all too typical of this Edinburgh season.
A long Edinburgh clearance was well placed into space, but the bounce eluded the chasing Embramen, The Stovenator and Hoyland colliding going for the ball. Referee Jones played good advantage in both sides' favour during some egregiously scrappy phases thereafter, before the Dragons made some ground on the right. They shipped the ball left to take advantage of numbers and Howard crossed. O'Brien's excellent conversion from wide out put the Welshmen 7-3 to the good.
The score was slightly against the run of play, but seemed to shift the momentum the Welsh way. The half ended with O'Brien stretching the lead to 10-3 Newport as Edinburgh's indiscipline cost them.
And the Newporters scored another excellent try in the corner on 48 minutes. The Gunners had given away an unecessary penalty on half way which enabled the visitors to set up an attacking maul. Although this was defended well they probed right then came left, fine offloading conjuring the overlap on the left for the impressive Meyer to score. Another excellent conversion by O'Brien extended the lead to 17-3 Newport.
The game was opening up and Edinburgh immediately had an attacking lineout of their own in the enemy 22. They put in a few quick phases to create the overlap wide left. But Rasolea couldn't hold the pass, coughing up a scrummage to the Dragons which enabled them to clear when the Embramen were penalised at scrum time.
Hoyland made an excellent, mazy break deep into the Newport 22. He was caught but the Gunners won the ball and worked the phases in the red zone. Eventually, they created an overlap for Kinghorn to trot over. Unfortunately, Dell had cleared the original ruck with a no arms hit on Meyer and could have had no complaint about the yellow card after the TMO's intervention. The try was duly chalked off; doubly frustrating as it had been a rare good spell of attacking play for the Embramen.
O'Brien knocked over a long penalty on 69 minutes, seemingly to make this game safe at 20-3. There was a bit of excitement on 71 minutes as Toolis' offload nearly put SHC over but for a high tackle. Newport's half back Davies was carded to even up the numbers on the park. Tovey found Blairhornnoff quick ruck ball for the big man to reach over for the touchdown. The Stovenator's conversion narrowed the gap to 20-10 with seven minutes to run.
From the kick off, du Preez broke to put the Gunners surging up. Lovely skills with ball in hand from Tovey, Berghan and Gilchrist surging up the wing saw Scholes just forced out in the Newport 22.Shortly afterwards, Dean - with his headband looking for all the word like a latter day Ian Jardine - and du Preez almost put Hardie over in the corner. A fabulous zipped pass from SHC to Tovey then a smart inside pass to Hoyland saw old snake hips clean over. Edinburgh were 17-20 down with the conversion and two minutes left to woin one of these for once.
The last hurrah began with a tapped penalty on their own 22 in injury time. They worked their way u[ to half way and forced another penalty to keep hope alive. A brilliant run by The Stovenator through the defence deep into Newport's 22 nearly made it but he was stopped short five metres out. So close for the birthday boy. But Cudd was carded for an offence and the Gunners had a third bite at the cherry.
After extensive debate, they decided to go for the try. Gilchrist seemed to have been driven over by McCallum and Ford, albeit there was a hint of a knock on. But the puckish TMO intervened again! Referee Jones consulted the big screen at the opposite end of the park and returned, an enormous grin on his face, to give the try. The Stovenator converted for a three try 24-20 victory.
At last, Edinburgh managed to pull off the impossible comeback for once.