Nick De Luca

Edinburgh rounded off their pre season preparations with a convincing win over the Italian Super 10 runners up that included a number of familiar faces, notably former Edinburgh stand off Calvin Howarth. The first real chance for Edinburgh came after 13 minutes with a break by man of the match, Andrew Maxwell who chipped his opposite number but failed to collect just short of the line.

From the resulting scrum, Edinburgh regained possession and another Maxwell break again ended when he failed to get the scoring pass away to Ben Cairns.

After this promising start, Edinburgh’s first try came after 18 minutes when Viadana conceded a penalty for diving over. Phil Godman kicked to touch, Matt Mustchin caught the ball from the line-out ten metres out and after a successful drive, Agustos Allori emerged from a pile of bodies as the try scorer. The conversion by Godman was good.

Edinburgh kept up the pressure on the Italian visitors when Nick De Luca, who looked hungry for work all night, charged down an attempted clearance, picked up and passed to Andrew Turnbull for an easy run in. Godman again converted.

Viadana’s troubles increased just before half-time when, from an innocuous ruck, winger Andrea Accori tried to square up to Ben Gissing who showed remarkable restraint by not retaliating when the No 11 attempted to remove his shirt. Instead, Accori was sent to the sin-bin.

Five minutes into injury time, Viadana paid for being a man short when Andrew Kelly showed his pace by breaking from the Italian 10m line, passing out wide to Cairns who was held up metres from the line; however John Houston showed good support by taking the off-load and scoring under the posts. The conversion by Godman made it 21-0 at half time.

The entire Edinburgh bench made an appearance at the start of the second half. These wholesale changes meant Edinburgh lost some of their momentum and couldn’t capitalise further on their one-man advantage. Nevertheless, Greig Laidlaw, replacing the vocal Ben Meyer, showed that competition for the Edinburgh scrum-half shirt this season looks fierce as he created his team’s fourth try. Splitting the Italian defence, he put Scott Newlands in under the posts for his first try for his new team. Laidlaw, taking over the kicking duties from the substituted Godman, converted.

Five minutes later, Edinburgh took advantage of stolen ball at the Italian lineout and with quick ball and good hands, Turnbull scored his second try of the match in the corner. Laidlaw was just wide with the tricky conversion.

Viadana couldn’t cope with Edinburgh’s pace and were turned over on several occasions as the home team’s back row, led by captain Simon Cross, convincingly won the battle of the breakdown. The Italians were lucky not to be further behind as Edinburgh squandered several chances in the final quarter.

Maxwell capped his man of the match performance with the final try of the night. Again, good hands by the backs, in particular Cairns, created the overlap for the former Ulsterman. Laidlaw converted from the touchline to make the final score 40-0.
Edinburgh now have a week off before kicking off their Magners League campaign away to Leinster on 22nd September.

Scorers
Tries: G. Cross, Turnbull (2), Houston, Newlands, Maxwell
Conversions: Godman (3), Laidlaw (2)

Edinburgh
De Luca 15
Turnbull 14
Cairns 13
Houston 12
Maxwell 11
Godman 10
Meyer 9

Allori 1
Kelly 2
Cross, G. 3
Mustchin 4
Gissing 5
Macdonald 6
Rennie 7
Cross, S 8 (Cpt)

Replacements
Lawrie 16
Grant 17
Hamilton 18
Reid 19
Laidlaw 20
Newlands 21
Warnock 22
Dey 23