Fifth defeat in a row points to mistakes in all departments

Rugby reporter

Saturday 5 January 2013

There should be no great shame in losing to the Heineken Cup champions, but there was an alarming raggedness about Edinburgh against Leinster last night as they closed out the festive period with their fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions.

Leinster's Devin Toner wins a high ball during their RaboDirect PRO12 match against Edinburgh at Murrayfield. Picture: PA

Custom byline text:

Alasdair Reid at Murrayfield

Just as they had against Glasgow in their 1872 Cup matches, Edinburgh played in patches that were occasionally impressive, but they lacked overall shape. Most damaging is that they also lost their cool at critical moments, failing to put points on the board after doing most of the hard work to earn them.

The result left Edinburgh languishing in ninth place in the RaboDirect PRO12 table and they can hardly relish their next assignment – a visit to Munster in just over a month's time. By then, they will presumably be without a number of Scotland players as well – although the watching Scott Johnson, the national side's caretaker coach, may have concluded that he could do without their services anyway.Edinburgh were commendably determined in their first-half defence, but then they had to be after coughing the ball up so softly and so often during that period. Leinster are a hard-working side, but they weren't exactly pushed to the limit to win possession when Edinburgh were virtually gifting it to them.The worst of Edinburgh was seen in their kicking, as those kicks that were not charged down generally went straight into the arms of either Fionn Carr or Rob Kearney. That the latter is rated among the best counter-attacking full-backs on the planet only served to emphasise the profligacy of Edinburgh's tactics. Remarkably, Edinburgh had actually opened the scoring when Greig Laidlaw clipped over a penalty in the 17th minute after Willem Nel had got the better of Cian Healy in a scrum. Even by then, though, Carr had twice threatened the line with sizzling runs down the right side, and Edinburgh's overall lack of composure as their own attempts to move the ball forward had been snuffed out all too easily.Leinster levelled matters three minutes later when Allan Jacobsen was penalised for a high tackle on Brian O'Driscoll. Granted, the former Lions captain had to stoop considerably to allow the portly prop to pull off that rare feat, but Jonathan Sexton stopped laughing long enough to hammer the ball through the posts. But there was no laughter among the Edinburgh followers nine minutes later when Leinster moved ahead with a highly dubious penalty try.It came when Leinster set up a driving maul a few yards short of the Edinburgh line. For a moment, it seemed that the ball carrier had detached, so Dave Denton pounced round to grab him. However, referee Ian Davies adjudged Denton's actions illegal and trotted over to the posts, pausing only long enough to shown the Scottish No.8 a yellow card.It was a dispiriting moment for Edinburgh, and their defensive focus deserted them in the minutes that followed. It is not the sort of thing you would want to do against the worst team in the league; doing it against the European champions was only going to have one outcome. It duly arrived three minutes later, with Gordon D'Arcy speeding over in the left corner for Leinster's second try. Edinburgh regained some ground when Laidlaw struck a second penalty just before half-time but heir woes continued early in the second period when Stuart McInally and Tim Visser were both taken off with head knocks, Roddy Grant and Sep Visser coming on in their places. Yet just as Edinburgh girded themselves in the second halves of their intercity matches against Glasgow, they began to string a few passes together in that third quarter, even managing to cut the deficit further, to 9-17, when Piers Francis popped over a dropped goal in the 46th minute. But just as their prospects were starting to look brighter, the clouds closed in again when Shane Jennings, showing indecent levels of subtlety and skill for a back-row forward, dummied two Edinburgh defenders and sent Sexton over for Leinster's third try.As a consequence, Edinburgh threw caution to the wind. fair enough, but they ditched cool-headedness as well, and were unable to make anything of the positions they did create. They did force the ball-killing offence that earned Jamie Heaslip 10 minutes in the sin bin, but it said everything about Leinster that they claimed their fourth try, and bonus point, through Ian Madigan while the Lions No.8 was enjoying his little rest.Edinburgh did get a consolation try when Nel barrelled over five minutes from the end. Too little, too late. And far too easy for Leinster to claim another win.

Contextual targeting label:

Sport

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Fifth defeat in a row points to mistakes in all departments

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED