It was hard to square the feeling and the reaction to Edinburgh’s victory over the Kings on Saturday night at Murrayfield with the scoreline.
It seemed every box had been ticked – another home win, running the undefeated record at Murrayfield to seven matches this season, 61 points and nine tries scored, five match points, taking them top of Conference B of the Guinness PRO14 ahead of Munster, who they’ve already beaten away this season.
Yet Richard Cockerill was almost dismissive of the game – “as daft as I’ve seen, really” was his remark on the Kings’ various calamities, and he was as uncomplimentary about his own team.
“We were inaccurate and not good enough at times, but every week can’t be your best game,” he remarked. “I don’t think we’ll get too hung up about it, it’s a case of: job done, move on.”
Cockerill is notoriously difficult to please but this was a new low – hold, on hadn’t they just won 61-13?
Actually the coach’s summation was, as is often the case, absolutely honest and accurate. Edinburgh were for long periods fairly listless, scrappy and struggled to subdue the Kings. Had it not been for the self-destructive elements of the visitors, then the game could and probably should have been closer.
They’ll probably point to referee Joy Neville, but in truth she had little choice at any of her major decisions. The red card to tighthead Pieter Scholtz for leading with the elbow to the throat of John Barclay after just 16 minutes was an absolute stonewaller, and most of her other options were right.
The yellow card for collapsing a maul which resulted in a penalty try anyway – and finally opened the floodgates on the Kings – was perhaps over-harsh, but referees are given no leeway for mercy these days, unless they’re a star ref prepared to go rogue like Nigel Owens.
In addition, the letter of the law was correctly applied when scrums went uncontested as the Kings ran out of front rowers, and the South Africans had to send another man to the bench.
Murrayfield always looks to have more space than most venues but with just 12 Kings on the pitch, parts of the field looked deserted. Edinburgh went through for four more tries after the penalty award, Mark Bennett’s final try, running from his own 22 to score untouched, was less a sprint and more of a saunter.
There were eight different try-scorers, and while some of the Edinburgh replacements – Charlie Shiel, Luke Crosbie, Dave Cherry – showed up particularly well, they did so gleefully against depleted opposition.
Still, the job was done, and Edinburgh now move on to a Challenge Cup back-to-back which Cockerill against Bordeaux-Begles and Agen.
One suspects that Cockerill regards this competition as a distraction rather than a goal, although they wouldn’t sniff dismissively at a quarter-final should they get there. Instead a PRO14 play-off place, and now surely topping their conference, is the primary goal.
Unlike last season, Edinburgh appear well-tooled to withstand the many international call-ups they’re going to lose in the next two and a half months, so with the groundwork done after ten rounds, that goal should be attainable.
