Zebre
In the run up to our game against Zebre at the weekend Paul Williams of Under The Sticks podcast (among other things) tweeted that he was looking forward to the game and some wit replied,
“no-one has ever looked forward to Zebre v Edinburgh”.
If Edinburgh had been the same team that demolished the Italians 50-15 last time out then I’d have said that comedian was entirely wrong but that is not the case and based on recent results neither are Zebre the pushover they were then.
They went into Saturday's game looking to win 5 in a row in all competitions for the first time since 2015-2016 and appear to have usurped Benetton as the leading Italian side.
Edinburgh seem to have trouble finding the flair that they displayed that day at Murrayfield and although they are working exceptionally hard that spark of creativity seems to be elusive.
After half an hour on Saturday I had written only a couple of things by way of notes.
“Plenty possession, pedestrian and easily defended”
“Hard won possession, multiple phases and then ball lost easily”
In fact just before Bennett scored the opening try Edinburgh had chalked up 75% of the possession but had only a single penalty by Van Der Walt to show for it. They would have been behind had it not been for Carlo Canna doing a ‘Brandon’.
So although the game hadn’t been the greatest it was tense and the first time I think I relaxed at all was when Bennett got that score following the great work by Farndale.
That respite didn't last however as Zebre levelled the game right after half time. A couple of Jaco penalties let us nose back in front before Nel was yellow carded and then Taylor, only on the field for 6 minutes, misjudged his tackle. My initial reaction was “he looks right up for it”, unfortunately the TMO review correctly highlighted that error and it led to a red card.
With 10 mins to go it was Hodor at the door stuff. Thankfully we held out and even finished with the flourish of a Farndale try as the clock hit 80 to make sure of the points.
If that try put something of an undeserved gloss on the win quite frankly who cares. It was a hard fought match and with yellow and red cards, history, a missing fullback (and coach) and recent Zebre form all against us i’ll take it all day long and twice on Sundays.
Farndale & Sau
You may all realise that Jamie Farndale is our top scorer on the wing this season. Overall only Mark Bennett has crossed the whitewash more often.
Four wingers have split the vast majority of game time between them. Here's a table showing the impact they’ve made.
The highlighted sections show who has had the best stats in those areas. You’ll note that it’s what could be termed our second line wingers who have put up the top numbers in each section. That's not to denigrate our first choices but is merely to flag the value of having such able and available deputies.
Jamie Farndale is seriously rapid and that question of who may be the fastest at the club may have a different answer than we have previously considered.
Sau packs a serious punch in the tackle and although I’m always a bit worried he may stray too high it is always an ooft moment when he unleashes that hit.
Fixtures
The win against Zebre helped close the gap on the sides above a little. There's a couple of games before we take to the field again which may have a bearing on where we can get to but regardless of those we need to win at Rodney Parade to give ourselves the best chance of overtaking some of the sides above us.
The chart below shows the games remaining to each of the sides above Edinburgh in Conference B with the exception of Munster as they are nailed on to finish top.
Make up your own mind where the points will come from. I think it entirely possible we might be entertaining Cardiff on the last day of the season with third place the prize on offer.
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