Edinburgh off the mark

Editor

Edinburgh scored their first win on the Rabodirect Pro12 season on Friday, beating Connacht 19-14 at Murrayfield.

Edinburgh scored their first win on the Rabodirect Pro12 season on Friday, beating Connacht 19-14 at Murrayfield.

Edinburgh broke their duck for the season after edging a tight contest that only sprang to life in the latter stages.

Until replacement back Gregor Hunter crossed the line with 11 minutes to go following a charged down kick, the contest was dominated by penalty goals and countless errors, with Edinburgh outscoring the visitors four penalty goals to three.

Coach Michael Bradley made four personnel changes to the line-up that nearly came away from the Ospreys with a share of the spoils the previous week as he came up against his former club for the first time in the competition.

And it was versatile captain Greig Laidlaw, who switched to fly-half to form a new partnership with Chris Leck, who provided all of the Scottish side's points until late tries for either side arrived in the nick of time to at least provide the 2,364 spectators who braved the foul weather some entertainment.

Connacht started the game brightly and were narrowly denied a try in the first half when Tiernan O'Halloran was bundled into touch just short of the line.

Matthew Jarvis also missed two early penalty opportunities and Connacht were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal by Laidlaw, who put over two kicks to hand the home side a 6-0 lead.

Penalties were traded thereafter until Hunter profited from a charged down kick. Niall O'Connor then replied with a try for Connacht to provide the Irish outfit with fresh hope, however Edinburgh held on deny the visitors a hat-trick of wins.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Try: Hunter
Cons: Laidlaw
Pens: Laidlaw 4

For Connacht:
Try: O'Connor
Pens: Jarvis 2, O'Connor

Yellow cards: Duffy (Connacht – 35th min)

Edinburgh: 15 Tom Brown, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Jim Thompson, 12 James King, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw(c), 9 Chris Leck,8 David Denton, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 Sean Cox, 5 Steven Turnbull, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Jack Gilding, 2 Steve Lawrie, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Alex Black, 22 Gregor Hunter, 23 Matt Scott.

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Mark McCrea, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Henry Fa'afili, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Matthew Jarvis, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Ethienne Reynecke, 1 Ronan Loughney. Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Brett Wilkinson, 18 Dylan Rogers, 19 Dave Gannon, 20 Ray Ofisa, 21 Paul O'Donohoe, 22 Niall O'Connor, 23 Brian Tuohy.

Referee: Alan Falzone