Mike Blair reaction as Edinburgh withstand injury blows to 'win ugly' and stay on course for Heineken Cup progress

Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair praised his team’s ability to win ugly after their Heineken Champions Cup win over Castres.

Blair’s side had to deal with a number of early setbacks but adapted well, making running repairs before overcoming their French visitors 31-20. It was by no means a classic performance by the home side at the DAM Health Stadium, but they secured a bonus-point victory with the kind of consistently dogged display which has often eluded them in the past.

Stuart McInally departed injured in the opening minutes and stand-off Blair Kinghorn soon followed as Blair was forced into some early rejigging of his team, having already lost winger Duhan van der Merwe to an ankle injury just before kick-off. But Luke Crosbie was particularly impressive as the home side notched a brace of tries in each half. Bill Mata's touchdown and a penalty try either side of Castres scores from Julien Blanc and Julien Dumora gave Edinburgh a 14-13 lead at the break. Charlie Savala and Ben Vellacott tries took Edinburgh home, with Adrien Seguret replying for the visitors.

Blair said: "It was one of those days where we created a fair bit but the ball wasn't sticking. Sometimes you have days like that and I'm just pleased it came on a day where we were still able to get five points in the bag. We found a way to win. We came across some adversity just before half-time, but to not concede in those minutes was really good and meant we could go into the changing room with our chests out after playing into a tough wind and being a point up."

Luke Crosbie, left, was a worthy winner of the player of the match award for Edinburgh. Picture: Ross Parker / SNS

Castres could have sneaked a win on another day, and the home coach was full of praise for the visitors' persistence. “I was really impressed with them,” he continued. “They’ve got size, they've got cohesion, and they don't do a huge amount of special things as a team - but they stick in there. And their set-piece was good, so that put pressure on us, especially in the first half when the breeze was against us."

The five-point win from this match added to the losing bonus from their game against Saracens last Sunday keeps Edinburgh on track to qualify for the last 16. However, rather than trying to work out how many points his team might need to progress from Pool A, Blair insisted he would keep it simple. He explained: "We’ll just wait and see – and try to win all our games.”

Match details

Scorers: Edinburgh: Tries: Mata, Penalty try, Savala, Vellacott. Cons: Boffelli 3. Pen: Boffelli. Castres: Tries: Colonna, Blanc, Seguret. Con: Botica. Pen: Dumora. Yellow card: Quentin Walcker (Castres 36). Referee: Tom Foley (England) Attendance: 5,567.

Edinburgh: 15. Emiliano Boffelli, 14. Damien Hoyland, 13. Matt Currie (23. Chris Dean 48), 12. James Lang, 11. Wes Goosen, 10. Blair Kinghorn (22. Charlie Savala 13), 9. Ben Vellacott, 1. Pierre Schoeman (17. Boan Venter 62), 2. Stuart McInally (16. Tom Cruse 3), 3. WP Nel (18. Angus Williams 62), 4. Glen Young (19. Marshall Sykes 57), 5. Grant Gilchrist (c), 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Luke Crosbie (20. Ben Muncaster 68), 8. Viliame Mata. Replacement: 21. Charlie Shiel.

Castres Olympique: 15. Julien Dumora (23. Thomas Larregain 53), 14. Martin Laveau, 13. Antoine Zeghdar, 12. Adrien Seguret, 11. Antoine Bouzerand, 10. Ben Botica, 9. Julien Blanc (22. Rory Kockott 63), 1. Quentin Walcker (Loîs Guérois-Galisson 53), 2. Pierre Colonna (16. Brice Humbert 51), 3. Aurélien Azar 18. (Antoine Guillamon 53), 4. Gauthier Maravat (19. Florent Vanverberghe 53), 5. Théo Hannoyer, 6. Baptiste Delaporte (c), 7. Asier Usarraga (21. Josaia Raisuqe 74), 8. Kevin Kornath (17. Loîs Guérois-Galisson 38-45; 20. Baptiste Cope 53).