Edinburgh Rugby put on another tremendous show for the Murrayfield faithful securing back-to-back home wins in emphatic style over Aironi tonight (50-10).
A jubilant 4400-strong crowd celebrated as Tim Visser stole the show with a hat-trick, while David Denton, Nick De Luca, Lee Jones and Chris Leck also scored to complete the seven-try rout.
Edinburgh Rugby head coach, Michael Bradley, said: “You can’t take away from that scoreline. We got the first phase right and with this team, with the talent we have form one to fifteen, when the ball’s in motion, we’re very difficult to contain.
“We needed to put the record straight on our record and we were sharp today. When the gaps appeared we backed ourselves and we took the scores and credit to the forwards and their set-piece play for creating the platform for us to score.”
>> Click here to buy tickets for Edinburgh Rugby's next home match v Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup!
Denton was the first to go over, benefiting from excellent work from De Luca, after a penalty attempt by Greig Laidlaw fell just short of the uprights. Laidlaw made no mistake with the conversion (7-0).
With just over 10 minutes gone, the home support had another try to celebrate, as Visser was the beneficiary of more excellent work from De Luca, who broke free before releasing a wonderful pass over the top of two defenders to the flying winger. Laidlaw again converted (14-0).
Visser grabbed his second not long later, after a well-worked move unlocked the Aironi defence, but this was cancelled out by a try from visiting lock George Biagi, who charged down a kick from Laidlaw to score (21-5).
Incredibly there was still time for another Edinburgh try before the break.
A delicate Sean Cox offload allowed the impressive De Luca to race clear of the covering defence and secure the bonus point before the interval.
Laidlaw converted, and added a penalty before the break to give the hosts a comfortable lead.
HALF-TIME: Edinburgh Rugby 31-5 Aironi
Soon after half-time Visser completed his hat-trick after getting on the end of a clever kick through from stand-off Harry Leonard to gather the ball.
Laidlaw was again on target with the conversion (38-5) with a sixth try was not long in following.
As a superb piece of vision and accuracy from replacement Phil Godman allowed Lee Jones to gather a cross-field kick and add another try for Bradley’s side (43-5).
Another replacement, scrum-half Chris Leck, was then on the end of a superb team move to score his first for the club.
Godman added the extras, to take Edinburgh to the half century.
Filippo Ferrarini scored late on for the visitors, but it was merely consolation as the home team ran out comfortable victors by 50 points to 10.
Edinburgh will be pleased to have avenged September’s loss in Italy with a morale-boosting win for Bradley’s side ahead of another tough challenge next weekend, as they prepare to face Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield in Round 3 of the Heineken Cup before hosting the Welshmen in the return fixture the following week.
Edinburgh Rugby: 15 Chris Paterson, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 James King, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Harry Leonard, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c); 8 David Denton, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 Sean Cox, 5 Esteban Lozada, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen
Replacements: 16 Steven Lawrie (for Ford), 17 Kyle Traynor (for Jacobsen), 18 Lewis Niven (for Cross), 19 Netani Talei (for Gilchrist), 20 Ross Rennie, 21 Chris Leck (for Laidlaw), 22 Phil Godman (for King), 23 John Houston (for De Luca)
Aironi: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Sinoti Sinoti, 13 Matteo Pratichetti, 12 Gabriel Pizzaro, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Tito Tebaldi; 8 Josh Sole, 7 Filippo Ferrarini, 6 Nicola Cattina, 5 George Biagi, 4 Quentin Geldenhuys (c), 3 Fabio Staibano, 2 Roberto Santamaria, 1 Alberto De Marchi
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D’Apice (for Santamaria), 17 Salvatore Perugini (for De Marchi), 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 Marco Bortolami (for Biagi), 20 Frans Viljoen (for Cattina), 21 Tyson Keats (for Olivier), 22 Gilberto Pavan (for Venditti), 23 Guilio Toniolatti (for Trevisan)
