You’ve heard it all before, so this will be a brief match report.
Edinburgh played well in patches, especially the first half. They had little in the way of possession in the Ulster 22 and although Tom Brown played very well in both attack and defence, they were up against the league leaders at home and high on confidence.
Brown took two tries well but when Ulster – and Pienaar – started to push they found it a bit too easy to gather up the tries the Ravenhill crowd desired. Edinburgh kept the ball reasonably well early on and Nigel Owens stood up for them in the face of the usual Irish pressure at the breakdown, but individual mistakes again cost them any momentum they could build.
There was a moment when Ulster looked like they might get overly cocky and Edinburgh could nick something if they hung on. Sadly that moment passed very quickly and normal service resumed.
With their first team they might have had a chance on this night, but by about 55 minutes the game was again over. Stick this week’s first half with last week’s second and you’d have a win against most mid-table teams, but Edinburgh this season have seemed utterly incapable of maintaining concentration for any great length of time,
I’m listening to Glasgow hump the Dragons on the radio, and Peter Wright, sage of sages, just said that when you are the better team you have to show you are the better team, and Ulster did just that.
The Weekly Edinburgh Positivity Watch*
Good:
- Tom Brown tackled well and took two tries.
- Greig Tonks looks a safe pair of hands at the back. Still doesn’t run enough like he did the first couple of games.
- Lineout with Titterell throwing secured possession.
- Young Rob McAlpine had a good night.
- Gregor Hunter’s placekicking.
- James King was going well until he knocked himself squiffy on Stephen Ferris.
Bad:
- Scrum – Nel had a very off night.
- Kicking from hand was poor, couple of chargedowns and poor kicks in the loose.
- When the bench emptying began Edinburgh were largely second class.
- Ulster still have Ruan Pienaar on their books.
- McInally blew hot and cold, again. Still not convinced.
- Edinburgh missed too many tackles at key moments.
*aka the sliding scale of crap, aka the clutching of the straws