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THE FREEFALL CONTINUES

Edinburgh: 11 (0) Cardiff: 16 ()



Why do we always come here?  I guess we'll never know.  It's like some kind of torture to have to watch this show.

As ever, the Muppets hit the nail on the head.  Friday evening's Magners match at Murrayfield was about as forgettable an encounter as we have seen all season, and that's saying something.  The sparse crowd in the national stadium had to wait nearly half an hour for the first score - a penalty by Leigh Halfpenny - while the Embra highlight of the first period was Simon Webster's excellent try-saving tackle on Mustoe.  That, at least was good news, showing that the international wing is returning to decent form after his injury problems.

The second half wasn't much better.  After a jaunty home restart, which resulted in a David Blair penalty on 41 minutes, we had to wait until no-side for the Tim Visser try that at least brought a losing bonus point.  Nevertheless, Edinburgh now sit third from bottom in the competition, behind Connacht and Benetton Treviso, the latter even having a game in hand.  It's not where we want to be, but it's a fair reflection of the quality of performances that the capital side have put in this term.

Strangely, though, the result was better than I, for one, had dared to hope.  While Edinburgh fielded a much weakened team, Cardiff sent a strong squad to Murrayfield and, had Halfpenny not guddled a simple pass in a try scoring position in the first five minutes, they might have put a big score on the home side.  That they did not do so was in large measure down to solid Embra defending, as well as to their own profligacy.

It will have been a good outing for some of the tyro Gunners too.  Dave Denton continues to impress at blindside, while Lewis Niven put in a good shift at loosehead.  Playing against an international quality back row was always going to be a tough debut for Struan Dewar, but he kept at it and will have learned a great deal.

But it was in attack that Edinburgh had the problems.  The set piece and the lineout functioned well, yet they were outplayed at the breakdown.  Xavier Rush, in particular, caught the eye for Cardiff.  And the New Zealander was responsible for the only piece of magic of the night, a lovely offload putting Czekaj over for Cardiff's only try.

With the Cardiff defence rushing up at high speed throughout, there was always a hole around the 10-12 channel.  It was begging to be probed, either with a dink behind the defence or a half back break. Yet Embra persisted in slinging the ball along the line, where King or Cairns were generally engulfed just as the ball got to them. 

There was a lack of smartness about Edinburgh's play.  One could even criticise the decision making prior to their try.  Rather than knock over a simple penalty late on when they were 10 points down, securing the bonus point, they decided to run it.  As it happened, they eventually got the try.  But they were never going to draw the match, let alone win it, at that stage.  So they should have taken the three points and got off the park.

I'm counting the days until this season is all over.  Some of the players look like they're doing that too.