Edinburgh 16-16 Bordeaux-Begles: Capital side rue letting ten-point lead slip

Cockerill's men fail to make it two wins in a row ahead of Wasps double-header
Blair Kinghorn scored Edinburgh's only try of the night. Pic: SNSBlair Kinghorn scored Edinburgh's only try of the night. Pic: SNS
Blair Kinghorn scored Edinburgh's only try of the night. Pic: SNS

Edinburgh Rugby let a ten-point lead slip in their European Challenge Cup tie at home to Bordeaux-Begles, drawing 16-16 with their French counterparts.

The result will cause some frustration for Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill, who had been hopeful his

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

team could build on their impressive victory away at Agen last week.

As it was, the Capital outfit were left with a share of the spoils at BT Murrayfield ahead of their double-header with Wasps next month.

After a largely uneventful opening period, Edinburgh’s South African stand-off Jaco van der Walt opened the scoring with a straightforward penalty.

Van der Walt then added a further three points on 28 minutes with a long-range penalty to make it 6-0 to the hosts.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Bordeaux-Belges replied instantly as Matthieu Jalibert slotted over a penalty of his own.

The change did not hamper Edinburgh too much as the hosts went on to score the opening try on 37 minutes. The ball was worked out to full-back Blair Kinghorn and he showed good speed to blast past the visiting defence and score. Van der Walt added the extras.

Edinburgh once again conceded a penalty from the restart, but this time Jalibert struck the post. The same player, however, made no mistake right on half-time to make it 13-6 to Edinburgh at the break.

Van der Walt scored another penalty on 51 minutes to put Edinburgh 16-6 and at this point, they looked on course to pick up another win in Pool 3.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Edinburgh spurned a glorious opportunity to seal the win on 57 minutes when Kinghorn failed to take advantage of a tantalising two-v-one situation and the French were let off the hook.

They punished Edinburgh just four minutes later as Semi Radrada bulldozed over, Jalibert adding the conversion.

Van der Walt then failed with a penalty of his own and that miss came back to haunt Edinburgh as Jalibert punted a long-range penalty over the sticks on 78 minutes to make it 16-16.