Lack of composure sees Edinburgh’s Heineken Cup hopes vanish

Edinburgh’s lack of composure and ill discipline saw them gift a clinical London Wasps side victory at Murrayfield. Twenty points from Danny Cipriani and a late Tom Rees try secured the win for the visitors despite Edinburgh holding a one-point lead going into the final 15 minutes.

With both teams tied on four points in pool 2 of the Heineken Cup a, win for either side would make their progression to the knock-out stages more-or-less a formality. With so much at stake, Edinburgh named 12 Scottish internationals in their starting line-up, while Wasps welcomed back 9 players back from the England autumn test series.

After his disappointing run of form for England, Cipriani had a point to prove, and Edinburgh gifted the England star four first half penalties as a result of constant infringements at the breakdown.

The home side enjoyed the majority of first half possession, yet failed to convert this into points as Wasps’ blitz defense dealt comfortably with Edinburgh’s forays into their half. Chris Paterson scored the home side’s only points of the first half when Wasps were penalised for not rolling away.

Paterson’s successful kick was a well deserved reward for a period of sustained pressure on the visitors' try line. The error-strewn first half ended at 3-12 with neither team having asserted any kind of dominance. But after the break, Paterson brought Edinburgh to within three points of the visitors with two penalties in quick succession.

The home pack had a golden opportunity to give Edinburgh the lead when a series of pick-and-drives brought them to within two metres of the try line. Unfortunately the home side appeared to be suffering from white line fever which plagued them all night resulting in a knock-on only a metre from the line.

Coming into the final quarter, Cipriani landed another easy penalty that Edinburgh side could ill afford concede.

To the delight of the record breaking crowd of 7,711, Edinburgh finally managed to break through the impressive Wasp defence to touch down when Mark Robertson outpaced Josh Lewsey to pounce on Phil Godman’s cross field kick and bring his side to within a point of the visitors. Paterson added the extras giving Edinburgh the lead for the first time in the match.

However, with ten minutes left, Ross Rennie was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Paul Sackey. The controversial decision made by referee Christophe Berdos handed the visitors the lead as the penalty was successfully converted by Cipriani.

Godman had two chances to cancel out Cipriani’s penalty, but he sent a snap drop goal well wide and failed to find the target again with a penalty attempt. The decision to give Godman his first kick at goal with so much at stake will surely be scrutinised, with Paterson having a 100 per cent record in the game.

Wasps secured the hard-fought victory with a Tom Rees try three minutes from time when Nick De Luca was caught in possession in his own 22 and consequently turned over. After several phases, Rees powered over, though more than a hint of double movement was missed by the referee and his assistants. Cipriani converted to complete keep his perfect kicking record intact giving him a personal tally of twenty points and Wasps a 16-25 victory.

Edinburgh head coach Andy Robinson felt that Edinburgh deserved more from a game they controlled for long periods of time: “The reason I am frustrated is that I thought we played well in that second half and we got ourselves back into the game. I thought tactically we were smart in the way we played and the forward pack had control over the Wasp forward pack and we were playing in the right areas.”

Despite Edinburgh’s ill-discipline and failure to capitalise on extended periods of possession, Robinson was pleased with the fighting spirit the home side demonstrated in the latter stages of the game.

“I’m pleased with the players. I’m pleased with the second half performance having been naïve in the first half.”

Edinburgh’s inability to remain focused and play for a full 80 minutes is becoming a recurring problem this season and was reiterated by a visibly frustrated Robinson.

“At 16-15 with 15 minutes to go we were the dominant side. We had to push on and win the game” he said.

Mark Robertson echoed Robinson’s belief that the home side deserved the win and they believed they would seal the victory after going 16-15 up with only fifteen minutes left.

“We are really gutted with the outcome, obviously. With the way we came back and controlled the game we thought we were definitely going to take it.”

Wasps’ director of rugby, Ian McGeechan, acknowledged that the game had not been as entertaining as the fans may have hoped, however stressed that his side had done what was necessary to keep their Heineken Cup hopes alive.

“It's not pretty,” he said, “it's nowhere near the quality of rugby that was being played last year, but there was a lot at stake today. We've just got to keep winning. We couldn't afford to lose tonight.”