IF ever there was a demonstration of the importance of bonus points, this was it.
Edinburgh's struggles with the extras on offer came back to haunt them big-time on Saturday and so they go out of the competition to a side with a worse record with only three wins to Edinburgh's four, but who rattled in the scores when they did to claim victory.
For Edinburgh, the main focus was on the final 10 minutes, when they went from home quarter finalists, to away quarter finalists, to being out of the European Challenge Cup altogether as they surrendered two tries to Gio Aplon, the South African full-back in the home ranks, plus a penalty to hand victory to the French, but the fact is that all those times in earlier rounds when they won but could not claim the fourth try when it was on offer were just as much to blame.
With results in remaining pool games falling their way, Edinburgh could have gone into this game with a place in the quarter finals in the bag but, instead, they kicked off knowing that while a win would guarantee them a spot in the knockout rounds as one of the leading four clubs, defeat was not necessarily fatal to their stated goal of getting into the last eight.
What they did have to do was get at least as many bonus points as London Irish, who were playing away at Agen and eventually laid down the challenge to the Scots with a five-try win. To stay ahead of them in the pool standings, Edinburgh had to at least keep that losing bonus point – which, in the end, they failed to do.
For 70 minutes, it was all going their way. They were making heavy weather of keeping the ball but still managed to work John Hardie over from the back of an early maul and then ride their luck for Will Helu, the wing, to cross for a try that gave them a four-point cushion.
Both sides got penalties in the second half, but with 10 minutes to go, that four-point cushion was intact, Edinburgh were on the attack and looking good for a home tie. That was before the meltdown.
"We turned over too much ball through making too many errors, some silly kicks, and some of our exiting was very, very poor as well, which cost us," said Alan Solomons, the head coach. "At 23-19, we were winning the game with 10 minutes to go, were attacking mid way out, we knocked the ball on, they took it up and were in our territory.
"They were on a penalty when they kicked a high ball and won the aerial contest to score a try [through Gio Aplon, the full-back] and go 26-23 up. In an attempt to win the game, we later tried an abortive short kick off, they won the ball, kicked it back to us, we dropped it and they scored again [again through Aplon]. The consequence is that we are out of the play-offs.
"We were the authors of out own misfortune. We granted them a lot of possession and they were able to dictate the pattern of play. When we had the ball and held it, we made inroads but we made a rod for our own back with the errors we committed. Some of the kicking was poor, allied to that was the poor exiting but for all that, at 23-19 it was ours to win."
What was ridiculous was that by the end, the players all knew it was all about the bonus point. A win would have been good but what was vital was that in trying to go for victory, they did not squander the knockout place they already had.
"We sent a message down saying that as long as we held onto the bonus point, we were through," Solomons revealed. "Obviously if we had had the situation where we had to decide between kicking for touch or taking the points from a penalty, we would have gone for touch – what's the difference between a draw and a defeat for us? In either instance we would have been away from home so we would rather have gone for a win and a home tie. We obviously wanted to retain the bonus point, though.
"We had been keeping tabs on London Irish, though all week my approach had been that we needed to win and get a home quarter final. Towards the end of the game we knew that all we had to do was hold the bonus point and we were through. They were never going to attack from deep, they would have left it at 26-23. We went for broke and the result was that they scored a try and took away the bonus point. That was the end of it for us."
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