MULTI-TASKING is what rugby is all about. A successful team has to be good at defence and attack, scrum and line-out, and restarts and every other aspect of the game.
Multi-tasking is also what seems to be beyond Edinburgh at present, and as a result, they are far from being a successful team. Their greatest virtue for most of last season, and in their home win against Scarlets in the second game of this PRO12 campaign, was their defence. On Friday night against Leinster, however, they attempted a more expansive game right from kick-off, and the increased emphasis on attack appeared to have a detrimental effect on their solidity and structure off the ball.
The final score, a 33-20 defeat that saw them slip back to eighth place in the table, does not look too bad against the most successful side in the league for the last five years. But it would have been a lot worse had Leinster decided to keep up the pressure that yielded a try bonus point before half time.
It was only when Edinburgh claimed their own third try five minutes from time, to close the deficit to six points, that the Irishmen roused themselves to score a fifth. With visits to Munster and Connacht to come before the end of the month, Alan Solomons’ team need to quickly find a better balance, and ensure that more enterprise does not come at the expense of defence.
“We threw the ball about a little bit more - that’s a positive for us - and we just need to keep that defence as strong as possible every week,” was the verdict of loosehead prop Rory Sutherland. “We had a strong start - we just dropped off after the first 10, 15 minutes. It’s really disappointing.
“We came back in the first 20 minutes of the second half but then dropped off again in the last 20. We really need to work on keeping up there and not dropping back down again.
“I think it’s a mental thing. We really need to work on it and improve. But we can’t let the emotions get in the way - we just have to come in on Monday, look at the positives, also look at what we didn’t do well, and try and improve for next week.”
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