Hamish Watson leads Edinburgh’s easing past depleted Newcastle

Dean Richards offered a withering critique of the Champions Cup’s governing body on Friday night after his Newcastle team lost the leadership of Pool Five having played without a single recognised tighthead prop in their squad. The Falcons’ injury problems in the position – severe enough earlier in the week – worsened on Friday when both David Wilson and Trevor Davison had to withdraw from the squad.

That meant a start in the No 3 jersey for Sam Lockwood, who last played in the position several years ago, with another loosehead, Sami Mavinga, as backup. Richards had argued on player-welfare grounds that Jack Payne, a fit tighthead, should be allowed to register and play, but European Professional Club Rugby denied the request despite Edinburgh saying they would have no objections.

The makeshift pack held their own for much of the first half, which ended with Newcastle 13-10 ahead, but the pressure told in a second half in which Edinburgh secured a bonus-point win to take over at the top of the pool. The teams meet again at Kingston Park tomorrow week, when Richards’ tighthead problems should have eased and wingers Vereniki Goneva and Sinoti Sinoti should be back in the squad.

“You lose three tighthead props in 24 hours, you ask for dispensation to bring in another one, but you’re not allowed that, so you have to play a loosehead on the tight,” Richards said. “It’s not like playing a left wing on the right wing, or an inside centre at outside centre – there’s a safety issue there and they weren’t prepared to address it, so I was particularly disappointed with that.

“We’re just disappointed with the way EPCR has dealt with the whole issue. We spent a lot of the game defending. Full credit to the boys, they stuck at it. We wanted to give as many of the boys who played against Toulon the chance to come out and perform again but their opportunity was thwarted by bureaucracy, which is ridiculous.”

On a night when a swirling drizzle made running rugby difficult, Edinburgh were unable to make their superiority pay up front in a first half which saw their openside Hamish Watson put them ahead for the first time after Brett Connor had opened the scoring with a penalty. Adam Radwan restored the visitors’ lead, then Connor and Jaco van der Walt exchanged penalties to make it a three-point game at the break.

Edinburgh hit back within three minutes of the restart through the centre Chris Dean after good work by the forwards and if that was a hint that the home pack were gaining the upper hand, the penalty try awarded after 56 minutes was conclusive proof. Edinburgh had opted to scrum two penalties on the Falcons’ five-metre line and, when the second went the way of the first and folded within a metre of the line, the referee, Marius Mitrea, had no hesitation in signalling the full score.

Darcy Graham and Radwan were both denied tries by excellent tackles from Tom Arscott and Dave Cherry respectively before, with eight minutes to go, Blair Kinghorn made absolutely sure of the home win with his team’s fourth try from a Van der Walt grubber. The fly-half converted, and a game that had hung in the balance for long enough ended with a distinctly one-sided look to the scoreboard.

“We’re only halfway through the competition but this group have a belief in themselves that Edinburgh have not always had,” the Edinburgh coach, Richard Cockerill, said. “We believe if we can get the right people on the field we’re capable of beating anybody across Europe. We’ll frighten a few people if we get everybody fit and on the pitch.

“It was a good win. It was a one-off game with the circumstances around the team they picked and the issues around their front-row. You’ve got to take what you can and we did but we know next week will be different.”