The Rainbow Cup was hastily devised and then even more hastily revised prior to Edinburgh kicking off their campaign against Zebre towards the end of April 2021. They started with a win no less. There were a number of firsts worth noting. Luke Crosbie captained the side, Matt Currie scored on his starting debut and Ben Muncaster made his debut. Three good tries won the game for Edinburgh 24-18.
Yet another double header against Glasgow followed. In game 1 at Scotstoun there were 3 cards in the first half. A red for Mark Bennett for a high tackle as well as a red for Oli Kebble for a petulant throw of his elbow into the face of Henry Pyrgos which divided opinion post match.
Some would have you believe that Pyrgos made the most of it. All I'd suggest is let's see what happens to you if I elbow you in the face when you aren’t looking and then we can talk again.
It was a hard fought game with Edinburgh battering away at Glasgow's defensive line but making little progress on anything not within the 5 metre area. The fact that Edinburgh’s 3 tries came from hookers off the back of mauls tells its own story. Glasgow made more of their limited possession and scored 4 tries to take the win and the 1872 Cup for this season.
A week later Edinburgh tried and tried again in the same fashion. Unsurprisingly the result was the same. They did open and close the scoring on the day with fine tries respectively by Chris Dean created by Bill Mata and by Charlie Shiel created by Blair Kinghorn.
A couple of weeks later we took on Ulster at Murrayfield in what was billed as the club's last regular game in the big bowl before the move to the new stadium. Much was also made of the youthful nature of the side that featured academy men Patrick Harrison and Ben Muncaster in the forwards, Harry Paterson at full back as well as Cameron Hutchison and Harri Morris on the bench.
LIke the Scarlets game from earlier in the year it was a great game for neutrals spoiled in part by the frankly woeful officiating of Ben Whitehouse and in part by Edinburgh’s ability to shoot themselves squarely in both feet.
The home side raced into a 12-0 lead after only 9 minutes with what turned out to be Duhan’s last try for the club (also his first of the season) and another from Kinghorn who was looking sharp at 10 for Edinburgh. Then by the 20 minute mark Ulster were level and two men to the good. They took advantage of their numerical advantage and added a further two tries before half time to give them a 14 point lead going into the changing rooms.
They added a further try on 48 minutes before they themselves ended up down to thirteen players. Like Ulster, Edinburgh used this time to add 3 tries of their own (one from Hutchison on debut) and tie the game at 31 points each as the full time whistle loomed. It would have been a fair result after the effort from both sides especially working under a set of rules that were seemingly being made up as they went. However Edinburgh deigned to surrender possession of the ball and with a sense of deja vu all round Ulster were awarded a penalty which Madigan duly converted to win the game.
Edinburgh finished their Rainbow Cup campaign against Scarlets in Wales with a last gasp 28-28 draw. The first draw in the competition, Edinburgh's first since 2019 and the first involving PRO14 sides in the whole of season 2020-2021. Mesu Kunavula was the pick of Edinburgh's roster topping the charts for Metres gained and carries. There was a debut for Kyle Rowe at 15. Cammy Hutchison made his starting debut and had a very impressive 60 minutes.
At half time, Tom Shanklin, on pundit duty, said, “not, really probably, seen the best of Edinburgh.” I think he was talking about this particular match but he could have been summarising the season in its entirety.
Edinburgh certainly ‘stayed in the game’ and the draw was probably the right result.
The Tale of the Tape.
Edinburgh finished second bottom of conference B with a mere 27 points. That means it’s the Challenge Cup in terms of knockout rugby in 2021-2022. This may not be a bad thing, gate receipts aside, as the club will face a domestic season that will include 4 top quality South African sides.
2020-2021 really never looked like being a classic season but with last minute tries being conceded and failing to get kicks in the same time frame Edinburgh lost at least 11 points which considering one of those reversals was against Scarlets would have meant a 3rd place finish. The tone of this report could have been more positive in that light.
League stats
3 of the 4 bottom spots in both conferences were filled by teams from countries with only 2 pro sides. Glasgow only avoided joining that happy band virtue of Edinburgh preventing Dragons running up a big score in that last league game.
In the Champions Cup Edinburgh ‘reached’ the quarter final stage but to win one game and be in the quarters highlights how weird that competition had become this year. The loss to Racing in that quarter final match can only be described as comprehensive and somewhat humbling.
The Rainbow Cup continued in the same vein as the previous 2 tournaments and the players had to fight hard for the win and draw they got. The effort was never lacking at any point. We did at least have the opportunity to blood some youngsters in the competition which will hopefully stand us in good stead in the near future.
We all know that Edinburgh are a blunt tool at the moment. We only scored 49 tries (67 in 2020) for the entire season and 34% of those tries were scored off mauls/rucks within the 5 metre zone. In 2019 - 2020 forwards scored 15% of Edinburgh's tries. This year it was 44% and like I’ve said previously, if the totals were similar who cares. They aren’t though. Average number of tries in 2020-2021 = 2.1. In 19-20 it was 3.04.
Even the tries we have scored are coming after phase after phase after phase. Too much energy is being expended. Look at the game against Munster from February as a prime example.
We had one try bonus in the league all season compared to 5 last year. There's another 4 points gone adrift. The table below shows how often we scored multiple tries in all competitions in comparison with last year.
Some of our best try scorers from 2020 were just absent most of the year. Lets pick a few-
So across just 4 players we are down 23 tries. Any wonder we struggled? Duhan and Darcy were mostly away. Scott entirely so which now looks like a big mistake and Mark Bennett for whatever reason was selected roughly 20% less than the year before and yet the only other try from an outside centre was from academy lad Matt Currie.
The Solution
Bluntly. Be more creative.
Maybe we will. We have signed some three-quarters that may indicate that's the intention. A word of caution though fellow fans. The backs we have signed have scored 26 points between them in the season just finished.
Taking a punt is probably the way we have to go though. I suspect that being able to point to Duhan as a success story who was able to realise his potential at Edinburgh will have been part of the recruitment pitch to these players.
We just have to hope the combinations that Cockers imagined when signing these players yields some juicy tries. It's not enough to dominate up front although I suspect we will continue to do that for the most part. We did it in the last home game but incompetent refereeing nullified that. If it's not that then its defences knowing that's pretty much all you've got and preparing for it.
So be more creative. It’s all very well to sign the players you think might help with that but the attack plan is decided above their pay grade.
There will be no more excuses for season 2021-22. No pandemic, no world cup, our own home. No matches during test windows. Team largely intact. Scotland stars mostly re-signed. New signings x 8.
It’s make or break time.
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