Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'Panicky' Edinburgh deserved to be beaten by Munster

By PA
Craig Casey of Munster after scoring his side's first try during the United Rugby Championship match. (Photo By Paul Devlin/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Mike Blair admitted “panicky” Edinburgh deserved all they got after failing to turn the screw on Munster on Friday.

ADVERTISEMENT

The men from the Scottish capital led 12-0 and 17-7 in the first half but were completely dominated after the break as they crashed to a 38-17 defeat at the hands of their Irish visitors.

“I believe these games against the Irish opposition in particular must be played at Test match intensity,” said head coach Blair.

“That’s why I was so pleased with the first half because we blew them away in the first half.

“But it was in complete contrast to the second half because we looked panicky on the ball and lacked all composure.

“There were a couple of bits where we mentally weren’t in it and it was really frustrating. The way Munster came out in the second half, we gave them everything they wanted. We were ponderous on the ball in attack, they won the contact, the physicality and they thoroughly deserved their win.

“The positive is that we showed in the first half we can do it but the negative is the second half, which was a completely different story.”

Blair admits his side will have to show significant improvement next weekend when they head to Saracens to kick off their Heineken Champions Cup campaign.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Saracens are nine from nine, they’ve got lots of quality internationals and top-level club players so we’ve got to be on it,” he said.

“We’ve certainly got to be a lot better than we were against Munster.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Boks Office | Episode 37 | Six Nations Round 4 Review

Cape Town | Leg 2 | Day 2 | HSBC Challenger Series 2025 | Full Day Replay

Gloucester-Hartpury vs Bristol Bears | PWR 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 36 | Six Nations Round 3 Review

Why did Scotland's Finn Russell take the crucial kick from the wrong place? | Whistle Watch

England A vs Ireland A | Full Match Replay

Kubota Spears vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | JRLO 2024/2025 | Full Match Replay

Watch now: Lomu - The Lost Tapes

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarriors 3 hours ago
Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

Rugby incident, happens scores of times in a game. Dupont wasn’t even hit with much force, Beirne just clears him and force is added from behind from Furlong.

We can’t have special treatment for France just because their star is the one who gets unlucky.

There is already a lack of clarity around actual Written decisions and how they differ from bans.

For example, Mauvaka the official written decision states Mauvaka to have made a ‘reckless’, ‘deliberate’, shot ‘to the head’ of a ‘player in a vulnerable position’ on the ground. That’s a high level entry ban of 10 weeks. However, the press release did not show ‘reckless’ or ‘vulnerable player’ ticked alloweing Mauvaka to enter at the 6 match mid range.

Similarly Ntamack’s written report showed that it was a ‘reckless’, ‘head shot’ with ‘injury’. The injury was a fully displaced nose bone and Ntamack apologizes for the injury in the written report. This should give Ntamack an entry level of 6 weeks but in the Press Release ‘Injured’ is unticked meaning Ntamack gets away with a 4 week entry ban. This is not counting the fact that the world knows he deliberately injured Thomas.

No. France have been abusing the system for years, recently spreading disinformation about the Ringrose ban in order to undermine confidence in the process.

Giving France even more special treatment is not the answer.

6 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING 'I think he is one of the best 10s in the world' 'I think he is one of the best 10s in the world'
Search