There was a lot said about pride in the wake of Edinburgh’s defeat to Bulls on Saturday. In Mike Blair’s post match reaction piece, he used a variation of that word 3 times.
Huge pride. It was an outstanding effort.
The pride we spoke about was there throughout the game.
proud of the effort the boys put in today
It’s hard to disagree with the use of that word especially in the way the day panned out. We lost Blair Kinghorn just before kick off, Jaco shortly after and then Gilco ended up in the bin as a result of the number of penalties we had given away in the opening minutes. So to fight back from 15-0 down and poke our nose in front with 69 minutes on the clock made for a really exciting match and like our coach I was very proud of the work and effort that the lads had put in.
That effort and work cannot be faulted and it’s worth repeating that. But, the more I thought about it, disappointment was the overwhelming emotion. Bottom line, we’ve been here before.
After losing 13-17 at Murrayfield to Munster in the quarter final of the Champions Cup in 2019, Richard Cockerill said,
“So I’m proud of the performance, but clearly disappointed with the end result”
In the 2nd last game of the regular URC season in 2022 we lost 10-16 to Ulster in a game had we won just might have given us a home tie in the quarters and Blair said,
“I’m really proud of the guys in the second half when they really gutsed it out with some injury issues.”
And only a few weeks later it was a similar story against Wasps in the quarter final of the Challenge Cup, when after losing the match 30-34 the sub-headline in the report in The Scotsman read,
“Mike Blair said he was proud of aspects of Edinburgh’s performance”
The following month we fell to Stormers in the knockout stages of the league, 28-17, and Mike Blair said,
“First of all I’m really proud of the effort that our guys put in”
Pride in every instance mentioned above and nothing but losses to go with them. I’ve even gone down this route myself and after that Ulster game I said on this very blog,
“I have never been as proud of this team as I am today.”
The old adage is, praise in public and criticise in private. So there is nothing wrong with being publicly proud of a great effort and there may not even be something specific to criticise. However, we have to do better.
If we want to start winning trophies, or even a trophy that isn’t the 1872 we have to find a way of being the side that comes out on top in these close run, important matches.
Much was made on Saturday of the fact that no european side have beaten Bulls at Loftus Versfeld and for all the pride in the world that situation hasn’t changed. Another side will eventually take that record from Bulls and our efforts will be forgotten by everyone except by anoraks like myself.
The question is then, does pride in glorious defeat become a limiting factor or is it just words to soothe our feelings in the wake of heartbreaking losses?
I don’t know the answer to that question but overriding that feeling of pride there is a continuing frustration that we can’t seem to close these games out.
I wrote all the above the day after the game but held off on publishing because I had a niggly feeling i was being a bit harsh. I even consulted Mrs Burgh Watch on that subject but you dont want to know what she thought. After all there was a lot to like about this performance. There's also the fact that despite losing we are 4th in the table and no team has scored more tries after 2 games.
Harsh or not, I just want to see my team win a trophy of some significance. Does that mean I A.T.A?
Was at the stadium and would like to apologise on behalf of all South Africans - we are perfectly capable of pronouncing Edinburgh I did try to correct the stadium announcer every time he got it wrong. Fortunately Loftus was not full else I probably wouldn’t be alive to tell this tale …
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