By Max Drinkwater
Cardiff’s hunt for a win in the Scottish capital goes on after a bonus point win for the hosts. The hosts notched up four tries from Duhan van Der Merwe, Pierre Schoeman, Darcy Graham and a bonus point try from Ewan Ashman.
The visitors could only cross the whitewash on one occasion through Thomas young. The hosts enjoyed a strong start to the game with the opening five minutes being one way traffic in favour of Edinburgh but the Cardiff defence held out strong.
A break from Van Der Merwe saw the monstrous winger steamroll Cam Winnett in a bid to break the deadlock was the best chance but Cardiff were still able to keep out their hosts. A penalty from Ross Thompson was all the home side could conjure for their efforts to take them three points ahead.
Cardiff endured too many spells of ill discipline which kept them camped inside their own twenty-two and if it wasn’t for a solid defensive showing they would’ve found themselves further behind. Incredibly Cardiff would find the first try of the evening after a strong line out set move.
A thundering carry from Mason Grady off the first phase strained the Edinburgh defence and a wide slung pass from Callum Sheedy found the arms of Thomas Young with the flanker powering over in the corner to give Cardiff the lead 5-3 after Sheedy’s conversion went wide.
Edinburgh were lucky to not find themselves in more trouble with Grant Gilchrist having head on head contact with Grady which was closely reviewed. Luckily for the home side only a yellow card was brandished by referee Morne Ferreira but a ten minute stint down a man was far from what Edinburgh needed.
Cardiff thought they had grabbed another try before the half time whistle with Young picking his path through a ruck less than 5-metres out but the flanker was denied his second try for being offside in the ruck.
Young was then sent to the sideline for ten minutes by Ferreira in the final minute of the first half after entering in at the side and slowing down a great Edinburgh chance. A scuffle between both sides summed up the first half for both sides, a scrappy affair with both sides making mistakes but both having clear cut chances.
It was only five minutes into the second half and Edinburgh snatched the lead through some acrobatics from Van Der Merwe. Despite a covering Winnett tackle the Scottish winger leapt over Winnett for the line and touched down to give the home side the advantage by five following Thompson’s conversion.
A big chance came for Cardiff when replacement hooker Evan Lloyd made a 50-yard break and was stopped just short by Van Der Merwe but the chance was thrown away with a sloppy knock on in the red zone.
Sheedy reduced the hosts lead to two points with a penalty from 40 metres out in an utterly incredible game of action. Edinburgh replacement Pierre Schulman thundered his way over the whitewash to give the home side some breathing room.
The replacement prop bashing his way to the line with Cardiff unable to be anything more than a speed bump for the try scorer. Edinburgh’s pocket rocket Dacry Graham would further flex the hosts muscle with a great team try.
The initial break from Hamish Watson who found Ali Price who would then find Graham with a basketball pass to put the hosts further clear of Cardiff. With two-minutes on the clock Edinburgh thought they had secured their bonus point but Ben Muncaster was just coursed into touch however the very next play would reap their reward.
An overthrow by Evan Lloyd landed in the arms of Ewan Ashman who snapped up the opportunity for his side to get their bonus point victory.
Edinburgh Rugby: 27
Tries: 4 (Duhan Van Der Merwe 46′, Pierre Schoeman 62’, Darcy Graham 64’, Ewan Ashman 79’)
Conversions: 2 (Ross Thompson 46’, 79’)
Penalties: 1 (Ross Thompson 7’)
Drop Goals: 0
Yellow Cards: (1 Grant Gilchrist 31’)
Red Cards: 0
EDINBURGH: 15. Wes Goosens, 14. Darcy Graham, 13. Matt Currie, 12. Mosese Tuipulotu, 11. Duhan Van Der Merwe, 10. Ross Thompson, 9. Ali Price, 1. Boan Venter, 2. Paddy Harrison, 3.D’arcy Rae, 4. Marshall Sykes, 5. Grant Gilchrist, 6. Luke Crosbie, 7. Ben Muncaster, 8. Magnus Bradbury
Replacements: 16. Ewan Ashman(46’), 17. Pierre Schoeman(46’), 18. Paul Hill(46’), 19. Jamie Hodgson (65’), 20. Hamish Watson (57’), 21. Ben Vellacott (65’), 22. Cammy Scott(79’), 23. Matt Scott (65’)
Cardiff Rugby: 8
Tries: 1 (Thomas Young 29’)
Conversions: 0
Penalties: 1 (Callum Sheedy 57’)
Drop Goals: 0
Yellow Cards: 2 (Thomas Young 39’ Josh McNally 72’)
Red Cards: 0
CARDIFF RUGBY: 15 Cam Winnett, 14. Gabe Hamer-Webb, 13. Mason Grady, 12. Rory Jennings, 11. Iwan Stephens, 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Aled Davies, 1. Ed Byrne, 2. Dafydd Hughes, 3. Rhys Litterick, 4. Josh McNally, 5. Teddy Williams, 6. James Botham, 7. Thomas Young, 8. Alun Lawrence
Replacements: 16. Evan Lloyd (49’), 17. Danny Southworth (65’), 18. Kieron Assiratti(49’), 19. Rory Thornton, 20. Alex Mann (60’), 21. Mackenzie Martin (63’), 22. Johan Mulder (65’) , 23. Ben Thomas (57’).
