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Strong Edinburgh side devoured by Lions in Jo'burg

Teams in warmup sessions ahead of start during the United Rugby Championship match between Emirates Lions and Edinburgh at Emirates Airline Park on October 05, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)

Edinburgh have suffered a heavy and frankly humiliating 55-21 defeat at the hands of the Lions in Johannesburg in the United Rugby Championship.

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Despite boasting a side heavy with Scotland internationals Edinburgh were simply blown out of the water in what was a totally one-sided rout in the first half that saw the Lions go to the sheds with a scarcely believable scoreline of 48-0 totted up.

The Lions dominated from the start, with fly-half Kade Wolhuter kicking an early penalty before tries from Quan Horn, Rabz Maxwane and Edwill van der Merwe pushed them further ahead.

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Edwill van der Merwe says he is ready to score some tries again

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Edwill van der Merwe says he is ready to score some tries again

Edinburgh struggled to contain the Lions’ fast-paced attack and their defence faltered repeatedly.

By halftime the Lions had built their commanding lead with further tries from Rynhardt Jonker, Reinhard Nothnagel and Francke Horn; with Maxwane and van der Merwe collecting their braces before the whistle was blown on the first forty.

There was a fightback of sorts from the Scottish outfit in the second half. Scotland lock Grant Gilchrist crashed over just after the break, while scores off the pine for Ben Muncaster and Patrick Harrison added some respect to the scoreboard – but it was far from enough.

Maxwane completed his hattrick with a late try in the 71st minute, putting the cherry on top of what was a resounding victory for the home side.

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Questions will be of Sean Everitt’s side, who now sit bottom of the URC table with zero wins from three attempts.

Fixture
United Rugby Championship
Lions
55 - 21
Full-time
Edinburgh
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Comments

2 Comments
S
SF 43 days ago

Was exhilarating to watch. Breathless speed and execution. I'm fast becoming a Lions fan...

W
Wayneo 44 days ago

No need for Edinburgh to panic they are still a very good club side. Not the first club to get mauled by the Lions in the past 12 months that included both Leinster & Glasgow and won't be the last.

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Tom 55 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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