AFTER becoming the first European URC team to win in South Africa last season, Edinburgh just failed to emulate that feat in the new campaign as they lost 33-31 to the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.

They would have won if Henry Immelman had been on target with a last-second penalty, and they might well have won if they had not begun the match so sluggishly.

According to Jamie Ritchie, however, the real let-down was the team’s lack of discipline.

“We went into that game with three pillars that we wanted to pride ourselves on: work rate, physicality and discipline,” the back-row forward said. “I think two of those three were probably spot-on – work rate and physicality – I just think we need to get our discipline a bit right.”

That was certainly true of the opening quarter, in which Ritchie’s co-captain Grant Gilchrist was sent to the sin-bin after repeated team offences and the home side raced into a 15-0 lead.

And, given they got off to a similarly sluggish start in their 44-6 win over the Dragons a week earlier, the visitors will have to work out why they are taking their time to get up to full speed.

Having said that, Ritchie insisted that the slow beginning was not the determinant factor in his team’s eventual defeat, and pointed to another breach of discipline that allowed Bulls replacement Morne Steyn to score what turned out to be the winning points two minutes from time.

“You saw the position we were in at the end of the game,” he said. “It was very much in our hands with 10 minutes to go.

“That penalty we gave away which Morne Steyn kicked over, if we’d not given that away I think we probably would have won the game. Yeah, I think we would have.

“Hindsight is 20:20. If we hadn’t given them 15 points at the start, then we might have won by 15 points. You don’t know. You’ve got to play the game that’s in front of you.

“We had a slow start, but I think the way that we reacted to that was outstanding. We bounced back and we came back before half time.

“I think we did a lot of things really well, a lot of things we spoke about during the week. Our week was slightly compromised with travelling at the start of the week but we’re not here to make excuses. I thought we played really well and there’s a lot to take into this week.”

Charlie Savala scored Edinburgh’s first try as they began the fightback from 15-0 down midway through the first half, and Damien Hoyland scored their last 10 minutes from time. In between, a Darcy Graham hat-trick gave further proof, as if any were needed, of the winger’s extraordinary talent.

Those touchdowns took Graham’s tally for the season to five following his two against the Dragons, but Mike Blair admitted to a touch of trepidation about the way in which he finishes off his scores.

“I’ve spoken to him already about putting the ball down with two hands, because he gives me the heebie-jeebies when he puts the ball down one-handed when it’s sweating,” the Edinburgh head coach said before going on to praise his player.

“He is outstanding. The third try with Bill Mata’s pass, Henry Immelman’s pick-up and Darcy’s score in the corner was just another of those brilliant moments.

“The first try he set off on his right foot, it looked like he was doing it at half-pace the way he beat that last man. He is in some form at the moment.”

A continuation of that form from the Scotland international will help give Edinburgh a fighting chance in Cape Town on Saturday against the Stormers, who beat them in that quarter-final last season en route to becoming champions.

Yet, although altitude will not be a factor as it was at Loftus, it is likely to be an even more demanding match than the Bulls game, especially as the travelling squad is already being stretched by injuries.

Blair Kinghorn should be available again after a stomach bug ruled him out of the team on Saturday, but Jaco van der Walt and Mark Bennett will have to pass their head-injury protocols before being cleared to play, while Gilchrist has a cut to a hand which may necessitate rest.

But despite those doubts, Edinburgh are in a good place morale-wise according to centre James Lang, who had probably his best game for the team.

“We know what a difficult place it is to go,” he said. “We lost there in the quarter-finals and we want to put things right from there, from that perspective and also from Saturday. The boys are disappointed, they’re hurting, but there are a lot of positives to take out of the Bulls game into this week.”