IT seems a bit churlish to complain about a five-try, bonus point win, but lets go for it.
In many ways this was the party slotted in between the stag night and the wedding - everybody's mind was on the big events just gone and about to come, making this was a case of going through the drills and coming out in one piece.
They did better than the last time they were in the same position when they were simply dreadful against Munster, but against a better side the number of mistakes and the willingness to kick away possession when there were scores available would be more heavily punished.
They will, however, appreciate the irony. In that match against Munster, the maul was the huge problem area. In this game it was Edinburgh's main weapon. Three of their five tries came directly from driving line outs, and one more when Zebre were lined up expecting the maul and failed to defend the five-yard area.
"We had to get the win and it was important to get the bonus point but if you put the cart before the horse, you have a problem, you have to build towards that bonus point," was the broadly satisfied reaction from Alan Solomons the head coach, afterwards. "It was pretty clinical, we got what we wanted out of the game.
"We pride ourselves on being a good mauling side and having a good set piece and we knew it was going to be a bit damp and had worked hard on that all week. The front five in particular were magnificent, that was where the victory was laid, they played exceptionally well."
To be fair, the ball was a greasy after rain earlier in the day and the week had been spent anticipating heavy rain so they had prepared stick-it-up-the-jumper tactics, which the forwards delivered as well any side could have done. They won penalty after penalty at the scrum and got both opposition props sin binned, they stole line outs and they mauled the Italians out of the game.
It is not as though, the Italians had nothing to play for. They are locked in their own private battle for Champions Cup rugby. For them the fight between 11th and 12th in the league is just as important as the one Edinburgh face over sixth and seventh. In both cases the rewards is top tier European rugby next season with all the profile and rewards that brings.
So taking all that into account, the stage was set for a bit of an upset, and for the first few minutes, it looked possible as the Scots took time to settle amid a furry of sloppy handling mistakes and it was the Italians who had the first scoring chance, only for Gonzalo Garcia, the centre, to push the long-range kick wide.
The shock of almost conceding points did, however, seem to settle the home side, with the forwards taking a grip on the game. A scrum penalty went to a line out to a maul. Another penalty, another maul and Edinburgh were trundling over the line for Roddy Grant to get the opening try.
Hidalgo-Clyne added the conversion and a penalty but the success of the early mauls seemed to have gone to the Scots heads and every piece of possession was turned into another maul, gaining plenty of territory but failing to create scoring chances.
In the end it was a ricochet from a stolen line out that did the job, the backs getting a bit of space to run in for Phil Burleigh, the fly half, to suck the defence to cover him and create space for his fellow backs to put Dougie Fife, the wing, on an easy run to the line. Another conversion and another penalty from Hidalgo-Clyne and with less than half an hour gone, the Scots were in a comfortable position.
That's when things got sloppy again. Even when Zebre were down to 13 men for a couple of minutes, Edinburgh did not really threaten the visitors' line and it was not until mid way through the second half that they turned back to the pack do finish the job.
When they came, the tries came in quick succession, first a set piece move at a line out, when Zebre were expecting another maul, putting Ross Ford, the hooker, in and then Grant again on the back yet another rolling maul steamrollering its way over the line for the bonus point try. In between, Hidalgo-Clyne was cheerfully landing a couple of penalties and converting all but one of the touchdowns.
Solomons admitted he was taking players off to rest and protect them, which made the final quarter pretty messy, though there was still time for Stuart McInally to complete the scoring in the final play of the game, breaking clear of yet another maul.
Scorers: Edinburgh: Tries: Grant (7, 54), Fife (25), Ford (51), McInally (79). Cons: Hidalgo-Clyne 3. Pens: Hidalgo-Clyne (19, 31)
Zebre: Scoring sequence (Edinburgh first): 7-0, 10-0, 17-0, 20-0 (half time), 25-0, 32-0, 37-0.
Edinburgh: T Brown; D Fife, S Beard (C Bezuidenhout, 69), A Strauss (T Heathcote, 46), T Visser; P Burleigh , S Hidalgo-Clyne (N Fowles, 65); A Dickinson (R Sutherland, 64), R Ford (N Cochrane, 64), W Nel (J Andress, 58), A Bresler (F Mckenzie, 54), B Toolis, S Mcinally, R Grant, M Coman (C) (C Du Preez, 20-25, 56)
Zebre: H Daniller; G Toniolatti (sin bin: 37-47), M Bergamasco (M Pratichetti, 54), G Garcia, D Odiete; L Orquera (A Chillon, 68), G Palazzani (B Leonard, 57); M Aguero (sin bin: 49-59, rep: A Lovotti, 65), A Manici (rep:O Fabiani, 50), D Chistolini (sin bin: 29-39), V Bernabo, M Bortolami (C) (A Mahu, 50), F Cristiano, A Van Schalkwyk, S Vunisa (L Redolfini, 33-39, rep: F Ferrarini, 68).
Referee: L Hodges (Wales)
Attendance: 3490
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