EDINBURGH have set out their stall, saying a place in the top half of the Guinness PRO12 is non-negotiable and they gave themselves a perfect start by beating a team that are always among the title favourites. Yet, they know this was far from a perfect performance and they are going to have to play a lot better if they are to keep up the momentum they have generated.
"We made a lot of mistakes in the first half, but in the second we took a lot more control," was the verdict from Alan Solomons, the head coach. "We created a number of opportunities to score but never got over the line — we will have to take a good look at that.
"I am well pleased with the win, though. Leinster are a good side. Both teams were missing a lot of players but they were two good teams out there and that was an important win for us. It was our first competitive hit-out of the season but there were still too many errors and too many penalties."
It was a special night for Damien Hoyland, the wing dealing with the pain of being cut from the Scotland training squad after winning his debut cap a fortnight ago. The club had been forced to move the game away from BT Murrayfield and decided to take it to Meggetland, the place where he started to play. He could even see the pitch where he first picked up a rugby ball.
So to score two tries in only his second game for the club made it a special night and he was obviously delighted even though he admitted: "They were probably two of the easiest tries I have ever scored."
That said, he had to wait for the second half before he saw much of the ball, even though his side had plenty of possession once they had weathered the early Leinster onslaught, with handling errors dominating the game and the sides level at the break with Isa Nacewa kicking an early penalty for Leinster and Nathan Fowles levelling matters for the hosts.
The second half was Hoyland's with his first try giving Edinburgh the breathing space they needed before he rounded the game off with his second both coming from forward pressure.
Scorers: Edinburgh: Tries: Hoyland (54, 78). Pen: Fowles (24), Cuthbert (71)
Leinster: Pen: Nacewa (17, 58, 73).
Scoring sequence: 0-3, 3-3 (half time), 8-3, 8-6, 11-6, 11-9, 16-9.
Edinburgh: J Cuthbert; D Fife, C Dean (J Johnstone, 23), S Beard (G Tonks, 65), D Hoyland; P Burleigh, N Fowles; (S Kennedy, 59) R Sutherland, N Cochrane, J Andress (S Berghan, 76), A Bresler (F McKenzie, 51), B Toolis, C Du Preez, R Grant (C) (H Watson, 59), N Manu.
Leinster: I Nacewa; F McFadden, B Te'o, N Reid, D Fanning; C Marsh (R Byrne, 55), L McGrath (I Boss, 55); M Bent, A Dundon (B Byrne, 48), J Hagan (R Burke-Flynn, 48), T Denton ( R Molony, 43), M McCarthy, K McLaughlin, (D Ryan, 51, sin bin: 77-end) (C), D Leavy (P Dooley, 63), J Conan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here