In the early stages of the match, Edinburgh seemed a little pedestrians and inaccurate. Before the opening had passed for 11 minutes, we had admitted 3 penalties, lost a line-out, threw an incomplete pass and were down 0-6.
We even saw BBM drop a high ball that is unheard of and shortly thereafter, Mark Bennett missed a fairly long -distance penalty effort. The center loaded the dragons, but in the fall from that Edinburgh were punished. At that moment it felt like it would be one of those nights.
The first important moment of the game came a few minutes later with Vellacotts Snipe. It brought the crowd alive and after a few more phases, Edinburgh got another penalty. They chose to take a quick tap and Vellacott got the finish that earned his earlier break. Bennett kicked the extras and Edinburgh was in the lead.
The next attempt by Edinburgh was effectively started and finished by Glen Young. He tapped back from a line -out just within half of the dragons, took a short pass and when Savala came close to the left wing, Young was by the hand to drive over.
Frustration clearly started to come up in the dragons. They had dominated the territory so far, but had admitted a load of punishments and the defense of Edinburgh had it lasting. The frustration became tangible shortly after the restart when the dragons Tighthead yellow were carded for a clear late tackle. Edinburgh kicked to the corner and with various benefits in his hand, Bennett kicked a 3 -indicator to give the home point a 9 -point lead at HT.
If the break of the Vellacott caused the flame, Darcy Graham’s contribution was burning. First, he accepted an easy run in from the pass of Chris Dean who helped to build a maul. And when the Hawick -man only 8 minutes later, with a Cheslin Kolbe tin on the night, a road danced through 30 (exaggeration for effect) Dragons Defenders and scored what a hugely demoralizing attempt had been from the perspective of the Welsh sides.
Blair Kinghorn was introduced to the promotion in the aftermath of that attempt. His very first involvement in the game was to kick a monster 50:22 from about a foot outside of Edinburgh’s own 22 who landed a good 10 meters in the Dragons 22.
Remember that this is a player whose kicking is ‘terrible’ out of hand.
2nd touch? A nice wide Miss Pass to Hoyland to score in the corner. Special mention for Marshall Sykes whose blind pass Kinghorn allowed space.
The next score of Edinburgh was made by James Lang and loosened the ball when Dragons tried to walk out of their 22. Kinghorn was the fastest to respond. He hacked through and chased it to score in the corner.
Straight from the Restart of Edinburgh ensured the possession. BBM insured the ball and fed Kinghorn deep in the Edinburgh 22. The man who had just made the 2nd place in the all time that Edinburgh tried to score, identified a gap in the defense and was driven by his support walkers until halfway before he fed Dean for a run.
Kinghorn had been on the field for 12 minutes at this point. If it was not for Darcy’s breathtaking 2nd attempt, I would have said that they should have been enough to give the price to Blair.
The final score – Edinburgh 44 Dragons 6
In general an extremely satisfying display. It took a few minutes to warm up, but that reassuring Strong half of Edinburgh was back and functioned in a high gear. A victory to take to SA was the minimum we had asked for. What we got was a bit of swagger and a defensive shelf life.
To do: Win Game 1 ✔️
#Edinburgh #Dragons #moments #counted