Last Wednesday, Edinburgh 1s took on Exeter in the BUCS championship cup. Exeter came out to Peffermill in full force and quickly took a comfortable lead of 15-0 after 17 minutes and some strong mauls off their lineouts.
Edinburgh did well to try to defend the team and capitalised on Exeter’s handling errors in attack to secure a turnover, as soon as Edinburgh got hands-on-ball they were a massive threat to Exeter and made it over the line for the first hard worked try!
Sadly, neither the game (or the opposition tactics) took Edinburgh’s side and after a call of knock on in the center of the pitch the team struggled again to keep possession of the ball.
This gave Exeter the chance to line-out and once again use mauls to disrupt Edinburgh’s “green wall” defense, putting another 10 points on the board before the half time whistle blew.
The second half was a different game entirely, the first half seeming to have lit a fire under Edinburgh.
After the first kick off there was a definitive difference in Edinburgh’s desire
and drive to win the game. This fire seemed to be the driving force behind the next 5 points on the board by Edinburgh bringing them closer to the possibility of winning the game.
After a disheartening decision to disallow a try from Edinburgh, the game seemed to slip away from the side yet again. Exeter used Edinburgh’s weakness and mauled yet again to secure a further 10 points on the board as the game began to come to a close.
With only a short time to go Edinburgh’s team chat behind their own posts from leaving members of the club lit them up again with pride and with only minutes left on the clock, Edinburgh managed over the line to secure the last try of the game and leave the score at 35-15.
The huddle at the end of the game was all emotion, but defeat serves a purpose. The next thing on the cards is 7’s and losing at the last hurdle just makes the squad even hungrier for other titles. Edinburgh may have been disheartened at the time, but what a season it has been for the team. They may not have won it all… but they’ve won the hearts of the university, gaining Team of the year at Sports Union Ball, won every league game they were faced with. They’ve had another year making friends for life and they’ve inspired the next generation of rugby players to keep at it.