Edinburgh 'more prosaic than poetic' in Ospreys win

'A wins a win for a' that', Rabbie Burns would have probably written if he was an Edinburgh supporter. I suspect his allegiances might have lain elsewhere but the sentiment remains regardless.

The side we selected to take on what was always going to be a depleted Ospreys team had full debutants, players making first starts and players making first appearances of the season but it also had a core of experience running through it. It should have had enough in it to win at home against Ospreys and on that assessment alone it was job done.

However, it was a horrible watch and at no point in the 80 minutes did it feel like we had the game tied up. The fear that bubbled under throughout reached the surface after Ospreys got back to within a penalty of snatching the points.

There was a lot of hard work done by the forwards. A 100% completion record for both scrums and lineouts. There were also big numbers of carries by the pack. The back line however was largely devoid of any sort of penetration, invention or cohesion.

Duhan van der Merwe did have a big involvement in a couple of tries, unfortunately they were Ospreys tries and apart from Harry Paterson's late score the best moment of the game was hearing the Murrayfield stand choir chanting "Duhan made a tackle, na na na".

Findlay Thomson's player of the match award came with the comment that it was a hard pick. I'd have given it to Liam McConnell for his turnover which effectively secured the win in the closing minutes. Only Harri Morris put in more tackles in Edinburgh colours.

We missed Darcy Graham because without him the only back that looked like he knew how to avoid a tackle was Wes Goosen. We also missed James Lang for his experience and link play.

A full 80 minutes from the excellent Grant Gilchrist as well as nearly a full shift from Paul Hill probably reflect that this turned out to be a much harder game than anyone expected.

It may have been more prosaic than poetic but it was still an important win in the context of a tough period that starts with a visit this weekend from French giants Toulon who are sitting pretty in third in the Top 14.

Sandy Smith can be found at The Burgh Watch.