An Ospreys nose dive

It had escaped my attention that Edinburgh hadn't won in Swansea since 2009. So when that was announced pre-match, I immediately  had a bad feeling about the game. However I don't really believe in hoodoos or anything of that ilk. Edinburgh were very much architects of their own downfall.  

What were the contributory factors?

1. Top of the list and something that probably feeds into many if not all of the other factors was the team selection.  Mike Blair has rightly had some plaudits for his squad rotations and ensuring everyone has had some game time. Against Ospreys he unfortunately went a step too far. It may not entirely be his fault. It’s probably not his fault at all in fact. Clearly it was the requirements of the national side that led to the 9 changes from Edinburgh’s last game, a game which we won by 66 points.You could argue that Ospreys also had to deal with the same issue but its basic maths that if you are trying to fill a 35 man international squad from 4 teams those teams will be less affected than if you were picking from It is a perennial factor and one we’ve never really been able to deal with.

2. At the heart of this loss however was the selection at 9 and 10. We may have as well gone back in time to the year of the Cockerill.  More than twice as many kicks from hand  and less than half the metres made than against Cardiff. The box kick that was one of the main weapons in the Cockerill era made a very unwelcome return. Add to that a predictable and slow service at 10 and the attacking flair we've displayed up till this game was missing in action.

3. I was keen to see the Hutchison/Currie axis in action as up till now they’ve had either Bennett or Lang alongside for experience. Against Ospreys though the two young centres made a total of 12 carries but the Bennett/Lang pairing carried 25 times against Cardiff. To carry someone needs to have passed to you and it’s no surprise that Vellacott/Kinghorn made 93 passes against Cardiff  Pyrgos/Van der Walt only made 60 against Ospreys.  As a result our wingers, a strength this season, had  11 carries against Ospreys compared with 17 against Cardiff in the last round. It’s only the second time this season a winger hasn’t been on the score sheet and the first time all the tries have come from forwards. That's a different type of game right there.

4. What was the rationale of removing Boffelli from goalkicking duties? He has shown his quality in that regard over the last few weeks and giving Van der Walt that added responsibility on what was his first start since October 2021  in hindsight was a mistake. He was nearly charged down with one conversion,  didn't learn from that and was charged down on the subsequent attempt. It may have made no difference but the extra points may have made Ospreys approach the remaining 20 minutes differently.

5. These stats -

	metres	Penalties conceded	Scrum win %	offloads	Turnovers won	Kicks from hand
Cardiff	774	11	90	18	10	12
Ospreys	371	12	67	3	6	25

6. There were probably more individual errors in this game than there have been across the whole of the season so far. There are just the ones I remember without re-watching the game(no thanks) but I'm sure there were more. It's not meant as a slight against these individuals specifically

• Young trying to pass as opposed to just going for the line

• Muncaster daft penalty

• Jaco charge down

• Boffelli missed touch

• No arms tackle from McBurney

What positives can we take?

1. We have lost only 3 games all season in all competitions and only by a grand total of 6 points. The margins are very tight.

2. After 9 rounds of the league we have more points, and are still top of the league  (thanks Cardiff), than we have ever had at this stage of the season.

I expect most of our fans would have bitten your hand off for those positives if offered them at the start of the season.

I do have to end on a cautionary note. This may be as good as it’s going to get.

Our next 3 games are against Leinster (Away), Munster (away) and Connacht at home. All of those games will be with much the same squad we used against Ospreys. As will the first leg of the 1872 cup at Scotstoun. Then we have a double header in South Africa against Sharks and Lions with the first of those just 7 days after the 6N finishes so don't expect to see many of our Scotland contingent on that trip.

So the toughest part of the season, as we keep getting told, at a time when our resources will be at their most stretched. If we get to the end of that and are still in contention for a play off place then we will well and truly deserve it. 

I’m not convinced we will. I feel the mountain is just too steep and we don’t have the right equipment with us to scale it. I sincerely hope we can overcome those challenges though because getting to base camp has been a lot of fun, yesterday apart.