Season 2021-2022 is at an end. What kind of season was it for Edinburgh?
Before the URC kicked off we played 2 friendlies at what was then the ERS. It was only when looking back I remembered that our very first game at our new stadium ended in a 10-26 reversal to Newcastle Falcons. That loss had been pretty much wiped from everyone’s memories as we banged on about an unbeaten record at what became the DAM Health. Sure we could argue it was a league/challenge cup record but I really don’t recall that caveat being applied at any time it was mentioned and I include myself there.
We followed that up with a stunning half century win against Benetton that gave us a nice fuzzy feeling for the league campaign that was about to kick off.
A win against Scarlets, a ridiculous loss to Benetton in Italy and a draw against eventual finalists Stormers at the DAM kicked us off and then we followed that up with a win against the other eventual URC finalists Bulls. A mixed start but as the calendar year slipped into 2022 Edinburgh were top of the URC.
Of course our detractors were banging on about “you haven’t played any big teams yet” and my Twitter feed was full of tweets like these -
and as January 2022 came to an end we contrived to lose to Ospreys and proved them right. Following on quickly from that we compounded that loss with our 2 biggest defeats of the season to Leinster and Munster respectively. In our defence however it has to be noted that these games were mid 6Nations with all the disruption that brings.
A big win against Connacht and a hard fought win in South Africa against The Sharks came either side of a loss to old rivals Glasgow at Scotstoun. This game was pretty much decided by two Edinburgh errors that gave Glasgow 2 tries out of nothing. Yes, they did well to take the opportunities but however you look at it they were gifts.
Edinburgh came away from their second match in South Africa with a losing bonus point to make our first visit to that country of the season a fairly successful one and we followed that up at home against bottom side Zebre. 29-26 in Edinburgh's favour and the knives came out again but despite a yellow and a red card on the night we came away with the 5 points and learned something about ourselves and our determination.
A second (third???) defeat at the DAM was next as we fell to Ulster 10-16 in a game that could really have gone either way especially as Edinburgh finished the match camped on the Ulster line.
The regular season finished with a win against Glasgow which was in of itself routine and pretty easy but the implications and outcomes of it were huge as it earned us a play off place (amongst other things) against Stormers in the league quarter finals.
Stormers, on the back of a 12 game unbeaten home record, were just unfortunately too strong on the day but no one can accuse the team of not turning up and at half time we were right in it. At the end though we just weren’t clinical enough to overcome the South African side on this occasion.
Verdict. First year with a new coach and more importantly playing a style that at least on the back of the previous 3 years was alien to most of the team so to reach the play off stage and come so close we have to be happy. There were a couple of disappointments along the way such as those defeats to Benetton and Glasgow that had we got right we may have earned a home play off place with the advantage that may have brought. On the whole though I am happy with the progress we have made and I’m proud of the effort the players put in across the season.
Some stats from the season in the URC (as of quarter final stage)
Overall 4th for attack but 13th for defence
1st for retained kicks
Beat most defenders
Best lineout, 3rd best scrum
Henry Immelman and Darcy Graham joint 3rd for defenders beaten
Immelman 1 of only 5 to score a drop goal
Most turnovers
Boffelli - our top points scorer - 10th overall
In the Challenge Cup our players did this -
Emiliano Boffelli - 3rd highest points scorer. Most conversions
Ramiro Moyano - top try scorer
Magnus Bradbury - 3rd highest for carries.
As a club Edinburgh scored more tries (31), scored more points (232), and made more tackles (787) than any other team in the competition.
We did concede 65 penalties in our 6 games. Only Lyon and Toulon who played 2 more games and Benetton conceded more.
Verdict - We topped our group with a good win over Saracens in London and only a very narrow 1 point margin defeat to London Irish blotted our copybook in the group stages. Irish were second in the group and even had they won their cancelled game against Brive Edinburgh would still likely have been top at least on points/tries scored.
In the round of 16 we disposed of Bath. The premiership strugglers were actually ahead at HT but in the second 40 minutes we didn't allow them a sniff of our line and scored 4 tries and recorded a healthy win and passage to the quarter final stage.
The quarter final against Wasps was frustrating. Early chances that may have given us a healthy lead were spurned, the refereeing was, to be polite, somewhat inconsistent and despite having a 10 point lead at half time the boot of Jimmy Gopperth kept Wasps in the game and they edged ahead in the last quarter and took the win (and the semi final spot) by a margin of just 4 points.
Ultimately I feel that Lyon’s name was on this trophy fairly early on and the semi may have been our limit even had we got past Wasps.
Season overall. On one hand you could say that for all the positivity about the team under MB in our new stadium, that we've fallen at the last few familiar hurdles yet again. However, as true as that may be it’s hard and maybe even impossible to be negative about the season as a whole.
We are playing a much more entertaining brand of rugby and can you really claim to be disappointed to reach the knockout stages of all the tournaments the team is participating in when our trophy cabinet is as empty as a tories heart?
Our achievements this season include -
Quarter final in the URC
Quarter finals of Challenge Cup
Winner of the 1872 cup
Winner of the Scots/Italian Shield
Qualified for Champions Cup in Season 2022 - 2023
So, there is much more to be positive about than to moan about and the work-ons (as you’ll see from the overall attack and defence stats) are fairly obvious. We do however have to back these positives up in season 2022-2023 and as a yardstick (of my making) only a URC semi final and a home Champions Cup Quarter final will do that.
Ideally we could win one of these and that would always be the aim but I think even the most blinkered Embra fan would have to admit that the next step is probably the hardest.
As I write the title is still up for grabs but whoever takes the trophy (that thing that looks like a bullet vibrator) it will be a new winner. Any reason to not dream we can replicate that in the next few years?
I can’t wait for the new season. Is it September yet?
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