Edinburgh stay strong
Edinburgh claimed their fourth straight home Magners League win by beating Connacht 24-19 on a freezing Friday night at Murrayfield.
Last Updated: 26/11/10 10:56pm
Edinburgh claimed their fourth straight home Magners League win by beating Connacht 24-19 on a freezing Friday night at Murrayfield.
Rob Moffat's side showed impressive grit and determination to see off dogged opponents and give themselves a positive platform to take into next Saturday's trip to face champions Ospreys.
Connacht enjoyed the lion's share of early territory and possession in the opening 15 minutes, winning a penalty when the Edinburgh scrum was pinged and then creating an overlap on the left which winger Brian Tuohy exploited to cross for the first score of the night.
Miah Nikora missed the conversion, but when Connacht again managed to get numbers on their left, Nikora sent up a challenging cross-kick that Tuohy managed to collect and touch down one-handed. Nikora's conversion hit the upright and bounced clear.
Despite these early setbacks, impressively noisy Murrayfield support had the desired effect in the 25th minute, when Chris Paterson stepped up to secure Edinburgh's first points of the evening with a straightforward penalty.
Jinked
Paterson then jinked through himself to finish Edinburgh's first move of any slickness with a welcome five-pointer. The full-back was successful with the conversion, bringing the scores level at 10-10.
Edinburgh went into the lead for the first time in the 44th minute when Paterson knocked over a penalty awarded for Connacht holding on. David Blair extended this advantage five minutes later with another three-pointer, the fly-half assuming kicking duties as Paterson received attention from the Edinburgh physios.
The hosts were, by this stage, much improved from their shaky start and soon gave themselves a bit of breathing space when Jim Thompson combined intelligently with fellow winger Visser out left and the Dutchman sprinted the remaining metres to cross for his seventh try of the campaign.
Nikora reduced the deficit to eight points with a penalty from in front of the posts and there was further nervousness for the home support when Connacht replacement Ian Keatley slotted over another penalty. However Paterson soon cancelled it out with one of his own from 23m range.
Edinburgh were reduced to 14 men in the 69th minute, captain Roddy Grant being sent to the sin-bin for going off his feet. The penalty awarded at the same incident was smacked off the upright by Keatley, but the visitors instantly won another at a scrum and Keatley made no mistake this time.
Edinburgh came under severe pressure in the closing stages as the visitors sought the try that could have won the match, but the hosts held firm.
