Ulster v Edinburgh: Five takeaways as new signing’s ‘superb contribution’ fires up ‘out-of-the-blue transformation’
Edinburgh's new signing James Grayson and, inset, Ulster coach Richie Murphy
After a dramatic 34-29 win for Edinburgh over Ulster in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at Affidea Stadium on Friday, Planet Rugby picks out five takeaways from the round-one action.
Top line
This new-season classic between last year’s ninth- and 12th-place teams, who finished a respective two and 16 points off the URC play-off spots, eventually went the way of unfancied Edinburgh in Belfast.
The Scots were immense for 50 minutes, claiming a 34-5 lead to stun home supporters. Freddy Douglas (20 minutes), Malelili Satala (39), Hector Patterson (42) and Piers O’Conor (48) were their try scorers, the last two efforts featuring slick, potent passing.
However, the jittery, subdued Ulster, whose only score came from a 26th-minute Michael Lowry try, finally woke up to stave off what would have been an embarrassing margin of defeat.
Three converted tries in a frantic 11-minute spell from Zac Ward (55), David McCann (61) and Keynan Knox (65) had them dreaming of a sensational comeback, optimism further fuelled by Jack Murphy’s 75th-minute penalty, but the visitors clung on for a deserved five-point win.
Frustrating Ulster
Who’d be a coach? The start of Richie Murphy’s third full season in charge in Belfast was supposed to deliver concrete evidence that peak Ulster might finally arrive, but they instead continued to frustrate.
They had finished last term in lousy form, losing three and drawing once in a winless four-match streak that cost them the play-offs and Champions Cup qualification, and they were also hammered in the Challenge Cup final.
Having designed a pre-season aimed at making them a fitter and more cohesive team, a 28-26 friendly win at Edinburgh 20 days ago would have had them feeling confident their preparations were tracking in the right direction, but they bombed here on league opening night.
Yes, they could take solace in a couple of instances. Their pack, which featured three new signings in their front five, won two first-half scrum penalties, and there was courage in the revival ignited by the hurry-up provided by sub scrum-half Matthew Devine, their new signing from Connacht, who was a real bundle of energy.
However, their play until the caution thrown to the wind period lacked crispness and reliability, and they must surely have the hump regarding their lack of sturdiness and physicality in the collision.
They were generally far too ineffective, and it left them in a deep hole on the scoreboard that they weren’t able to rescue. This sleepy play will surely give head coach Murphy a sleepless night and will have Glasgow licking their lips with the Irish side visiting next weekend.
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Edinburgh transformed
What an out-of-the-blue transformation this was from Edinburgh. The struggling Scots had been savaged over the decision to give struggling head coach Sean Everitt a contract extension earlier this year.
However, the summer addition of new assistants Tim Sampson (attack), Brad Davis (defence) and Michael Hodge (skills and contact) has given the management a much-needed freshness, judging by what they delivered for 48 minutes of this opener.
To be 29 points up with a four-try bonus point bagged so soon into the second half was the stuff of dreams, especially as they came into this match with an injury list as long as the Water of Leith.
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Dull and dreary had been a fitting description of the lack of ambition in their play for a number of years, but they bucked up that wounding reputation with their sense of adventure in Belfast.
Magnus Bradbury, Douglas and James Grayson were especially tasty in what they did, but there still must be a forensic review of how their defence crumbled.
Three tries were conceded in 11 minutes, rousing a home crowd that had gone completely quiet, and it very nearly led to what would go down in the books as a spectacular collapse. They somehow clung on, though, and the win will do them a world of good.
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Superb Grayson
It was quite the Edinburgh debut for their new out-half Grayson, the ex-Northampton player who arrived in Scotland in the summer after three years with Mitsubishi Dynaboars in Japan.
For quite some time, the Scots have lacked a dependable asset at No.10, but going on what Grayson produced in Belfast, they might finally have found an excellent solution to a problem position.
He endured a horrible early moment seeing a straightforward penalty kick strike an upright and fall away without points, but the potency of his game after that mishap was brilliant.
His initial bad luck gave way to the good fortune of his ricochet kick through, resulting in Liam McConnell setting up Satala to score on the stroke of half-time, but what he offered was best seen in the opening part of the second half.
First, Grayson elected to run back from his own 22 a Murphy kick and six phases later, sweet handling ended with Patterson scoring under the posts. He was then involved through the hands in the creation of O’Conor’s try. It was a superb contribution, the sort that fired up last season’s listless Edinburgh attack.
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Canny business
Ulster finished the game likely annoyed that the TMO review that led to penalty points from Murphy, which closed the gap to five, wasn’t accompanied by a yellow card. Referee Federico Vedovelli eventually decided his review of O’Conor’s high tackle on sub Ward didn’t merit Edinburgh losing their player to the bin.
On reflection, the hosts can’t really quibble as their discipline earlier in the game had played its part in sapping energy from their performance and, in the end, the penalty count finished nine to six against them.
Another wounding statistic was their lack of first-half possession as they were credited with just 30 per cent. That might be an understandable number if, say, it was the likes of Leinster who were in town. But this was Edinburgh, a team whose reputation had long been in the mud.
It highlighted how much the Ulster forwards were dominated for a long stretch, and the way Edinburgh kept the ball was easy on the eye. That improvement will put a focus on Hodge, their new skills and contact guru.
He was recruited from the Irish pathway system, where he was most recently head coach of their Six Nations U18s and assisted at the U20s World Cup. His acquisition, on this first look, appears to be a canny bit of David Nucifora-influenced business.