SUPER SUB Andy Kelly says pride will be Edinburgh's spur for the remainder of a Heineken European Cup rugby campaign that is now hanging by a thread after a 16-25 defeat by London Wasps at Murrayfield last night.
While the odds are stacked against
Edinburgh qualifying – they have now lost two out of three matches – hooker Kelly refused to throw in the towel.
An 18th-minute replacement for injury victim Ross Ford, Kelly slotted in so seamlessly that Edinburgh's set-piece work remained a positive – in contrast to some sterile back play.
Kelly said afterwards: "We still really want to go down to Wasps next Sunday and beat them. We said in the changing room we really want to put in a performance down there. It's another game and it has got to be won."
Such resolve could not conceal the angst that underlay an encounter in which the key moment came with the 70th-minute sin-binning of Ross Rennie for a tackle on Paul Sackey which was deemed dangerous.
Edinburgh were holding a 16-15 lead at the time but a converted try was conceded before the flanker returned. Kelly claimed however, that the responsibility for letting things slip was collective.
He said: "When you lose a man who have to pull together and keep playing rugby. We maybe stopped playing rugby when he went off. It wasn't a massive factor but we should have kept playing."
What happened was that starting with a sixth Danny Cipriani penalty which punished the yellow-card offence, Wasps were allowed to regain the momentum which they were rapidly losing after Edinburgh had overturned an early 12-0 lead.
The fact that Edinburgh were hit on the counter after rousing themselves with three Chris Paterson penalties and a try by Mark Robertson from a clever Phil Godman cross-kick clearly frustrated assistant coach Rob Moffat.
He said: "Not to be disrespectful to Wasps but we lost the game rather then them winning it.
"We made too many mistakes and our decision making in the first half let us down. We will always try to play rugby but I don't think Wasps came with the intention to play at all.
"It's a power game they play and they wait for the opposition to make mistakes."
Moffat's remarks hit the nail on the head with Edinburgh playing into Wasps hands for long periods, culminating in them being suckered by their more streetwise and tactically astute rivals.
Discipline was so poor that Cipriani was able to keep the scoreboard ticking over – leaving the Scots to play catch up.
When Edinburgh did get their noses in front, a series of decisions saw head coach Andy Robinson at his most animated.
From position at the back of the West stand Robinson emerged from a glass studio to make his feelings clear – particularly at Rennie's sin-binning for allegedly bending back then dumping Sackey on his upper body.
"That's just a tackle. Christ Almighty that's embarrassing," yelled Robinson from near the heart of the crowd.
Seven minutes later Robinson emerged into the night air again when he greeted Wasps' try by Tom Rees battling over from a ruck stemming from a scrum infringement with a shout of: "That's a double movement."
Had Edinburgh been controlling territory, though, Wasps would not have been in position to capitalise on the misjudgements by French ref Christophe Berdos – real or imagined.
There were successes for Edinburgh, including Mike Blair at scrum half and Nick De Luca running himself into the ground in midfield without decent service.
However, too often the occasion resembled a recent Scotland Test performance. In other words, lots of endeavour up front but no penetration behind the scrum .
Granted, summer law changes have left sides afraid of being caught in possession and penalised, prompting a form of aerial tennis but Edinburgh took that approach much too far.
Especially throughout the first half, which ended with them 3-12 behind, Edinburgh punted often and speculatively.
When they did run, it was often from slow second phase possession as Wasps proved masterly at dominating collisions in a way that made Edinburgh seem lightweights by comparison.
So, another Euro campaign has – barring a miracle – effectively come and gone with Edinburgh on this latest display having little to show for it other than Kelly's accurate line-out throwing and general bustle, quality place kicking by Paterson and trenchant ball carrying from Ally Hogg.
Both Blair and De Luca did their British and Irish Lions tour prospects no harm in front of Wasps coach Ian McGeechan, who is also the Lions chief.
Afterwards Robinson said of a match which attracted an Edinburgh European Cup record crowd of 7711: "At 16-15 with 15 minutes to go we were the dominant side and we had to push on and win the game.
"We were unable to do that. We couldn't because of the penalties we gave away, because we got isolated inside our half and we struggled at the breakdown."
Scorers:
Edinburgh: Try: Robertson; Con: Paterson; Pens: Paterson (3).Wasps: Try: Rees; Con: Cipriani; Pens: Cipriani (6).
Edinburgh: Paterson, Robertson, Cairns, De Luca, Webster Godman, M Blair, Jacobsen, Ford (Kelly 18), G Cross (Kerr, 75), C Hamilton (Mustchin, 59), J. Hamilton, MacDonald, Rennie, Hogg.
Wasps: Van Gisbergen, Sackey, Waldouck, Flutey, Lewsey; Cipriani, Reddan; Payne, Webber, Vickery, Skivington (Shaw, 54),Birkett, Betsen, Rees (Hart, 80), Haskell.
