United Rugby Championship: Mike Blair says Edinburgh could have been more ‘ruthless’ in loss to Lions

Edinburgh coach Mike Blair believes his side could have been more “ruthless” in the final stages of their narrow 22-19 loss to the Lions on Friday.

The United Rugby Championship clash was a tightly-contested battle in Edinburgh that saw a late Lions penalty steal the game in the dying minutes.

Blair admits the last period of the game did not go how he would have wanted, and his team needed to be more ruthless in those moments.

Failed to close the game out

“The last eight or nine minutes went a little bit differently than we would have wanted and we are questioning that,” said Blair “There is definitely a need for us to be ruthless and play through teams a little more when we get on top of them.

“The nine, ten pass and the next wide pass allows them [the opposition] to recover.

Blair feels Edinburgh would have benefitted from being more direct and thought the game was theirs. However, the Johannesburg-based side showed tremendous spirit and fought to go on and win.

“We made a couple of errors on the edges and as I said we could have been more direct at times. We fatigued their big men in the first half but did not capitalise on that in the second. We went 19-12 up with our third try and I thought that might seal the game but the Lions did well to come back.”

Looking ahead

The former scrum-half is an optimist and will apply this attitude in preparations for their clash against Benetton who have impressed this season.

“I am a glass half full type of guy over what we are trying to get out of things although I am very conscious there is stuff we need to work on as Benetton are a strong side,” Blair said.

Blair’s side has only won one game from four in the URC II after starting with a tricky tour to South Africa and will be desperate to string some wins together.

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