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Exiting Scotland star partially blamed for Edinburgh loss by 'angry' Everitt

By PA
Edinburgh senior coach Sean Everitt before the United Rugby Championship match between Leinster and Edinburgh at the RDS Arena in Dublin. (Photo By Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Sean Everitt felt Edinburgh only had themselves to blame for losing to Benetton on Friday – but he refused to let Toulouse-bound Blair Kinghorn carry the can for his late victory-costing error.

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The Scots looked on course to go top of the United Rugby Championship overnight when they led 12-0 early on and then 19-10 at half-time.

But they let Benetton back into the game in the second half and the Italians eked out a 24-22 victory.

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“I’m disappointed and at the same time angry because the things that let us down are the same things we’ve spoken about,” said senior coach Everitt.

“We put ourselves into a position to lose the game – Benetton didn’t dominate and win it, we lost it.

“We lost our line-out five metres out when we could have put them to bed and they ended up scoring 100 yards down the field on the return play, so that’s really disappointing for the boys.

“You can’t knock the effort the team put in and, from a discipline point of view, we were OK at half-time having given away four penalties and four turnovers, but then at the start of the second half we gave away two penalties in a row which led to the try, then obviously the soft moment late in the game which we couldn’t get back from.”

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The soft moment Everitt referred to was a terrible 68th-minute error from Kinghorn, who – under little obvious pressure – got himself in trouble and fumbled possession into the path of Marco Zanon, who dotted over for what proved to be the decisive score of the night.

The Scotland full-back, who will join Toulouse after next weekend’s trip to Ulster, had looked like signing off from the Hive Stadium on a high with two first-half tries.

Everitt added: “Blair did extremely well under the high ball and had a good game. We can’t fault him for one mistake because then we have to fault everyone.

“We’ll all take it on the chin as a team and coaching staff and move on.”

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1 Comment
j
john 368 days ago

Blair Kinghorn was superb under the high ball . He did make a grim mistake to allow the try but I couldn’t fault his effort .8/10
Duhan, however, was virtually invisible and when he came into the clubhouse for his “Try of the Year” presentation - he didn’t look like a man who had put in a hard shift . 1/10

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AM 58 minutes ago
18 debutants but Australia's core looking ‘more settled than ever’

Not so many when you compare it to the squad of 50 plus players used by SA. Four main problems with the team and Schmidt shows he is a good technician but poor international coach by not selecting the best players and rotating and developing key positions.


First, the scrum is woeful if Bell and Thor don’t play. AAA and Nongoor in particular are poor. Talea may be good but is not good enough. Schmidt should select Sio, Ainsley and Latu as the bench front row. All playing well in Europe. He should also be doing better with Pone and perhaps getting him over to France to work on his scrummaging. Pone is our best running prop but poor coaching has killed him. Needs better coaching OS provided eg Skelton and Meafou. Secondly, 9 and 10 combo. McDermott is a confidence player and is terrible on a bad day. He takes several steps before passing which kills the speed of ball and results in turnovers. Better off with Kerr Barlow who is playing well with La Rochelle and making McDermott work on his skills. Edmed probably does need a run too. Thirdly, centre and fullback. Perese is our best defender at centre and should be in the squad. The outside back defence is poor without Joe and needs to be shored up. Wright is also a confidence player and has poor defence. When he is off like he was last week better to replace him with someone like Reece Hodge who has a great boot and good D. Fourthly, lack of ball runners who break tackles outside of Bobby V and Skelton. Wilson is not up to international standard and dosent break tackles nor does McReight. Replace him with Gleeson and Leota on the bench if fit. Would also be better playing Pone than Nongoor as Pone at least has a good running game. Latu also makes ground. Amatesero is also a better player than Williams. Frost has been the standout fine. Finally, player rotation. Schmidt is grinding key players like Bell and Bobby V into dust. He needs to give them breaks by utilising OS players more and developing youngsters. The loss of Meafou to France and the guy who captained Scotland exemplifies the poor coaching and development in Aus.

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