Edinburgh on the move
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:06
Edinburgh moved away from the bottom and into a mid-table position when they beat Connacht 27-14 in their Magners League Round Six match at the Sportsground in Galway on Friday.
The three-tries-to-two win saw the Scottish team move from second-to-last into fifth place.
It was truly a match of two halves, with Edinburgh leading 27-0 at half-time - through with tries by Simon Webster, Chris Paterson and Mike Blair, while Paterson added two penalties and three conversions.
Connacht replied after the break with a Gavin Duffy try, which Ian Keatley converted to reduce their arrears.
Fionn Carr added a further try with Keatley again adding the conversion.
Webster opened the scoring with a seventh-minute try which Paterson converted and then the flyhalf added a penalty after 20 minutes to make it 10-0.
Paterson then touched down for his try five minutes later and followed it up with the conversion and a penalty on the half-hour to take his personal tally to 15 points.
Scrum-half Blair scored Edinburgh's third try just before the interval and Paterson was again on target with the conversion kick.
Connacht fought back with Gavin Duffy crossing the Edinburgh line midway through the second period and Keatley knocking over the conversion.
Fionn Carr further reduced the Irish side's deficit with a try three minutes later and Keatley converted to restore some pride for the home supporters.
The scorers:
For Connacht:
Tries: Duffy, Carr
Cons: Keatley 2
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Webster, Paterson, Blair
Cons: Paterson 3
Pens: Paterson 2
Yellow card: John Muldoon (Connacht, 71)
Teams:
Connacht: 15 Fionn Carr, 14 Aidan Wynne, 13 Gavin Duffy, 12 Mel Deane, 11 John
Hearty, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 Colm Rigney, 7 Jonny O'Connor, 6 John Muldoon (c), 5 Andrew Farley, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Robbie Morris, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 John Lyne.
Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Andrew Browne, 19 David Gannon, 20 Kieran Campbell, 21 Andy Dunne, 22 Troy Nathan.
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Mark Robertson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (c), 8 Allister Hogg, 7 Alan MacDonald, 6 Scott Newlands, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Craig Hamilton, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements - from: Andrew Kelly, Gavin Kerr, Kyle Traynor, Matt Mustchin, Ben Gissing, Simon Cross, Ross Rennie, Greig Laidlaw, David Blair, Hugo Southwell, John Houston.
Referee: James Jones (Wales)
Touch judges: George Clancy (Ireland), Peter Roche (Ireland)
