Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final turned out to be a huge disappointment for Edinburgh as the Scottish club surrendered an early 17-12 second-half lead at home to lose 39-24 to Bath.
Here is how we rated Sean Everitt’s beaten team.
Edinburgh player ratings v Bath
15 Wes Goosen: An error-effected display, his most influential moment came when his early second-half pass to Darcy Graham was illegally slapped down, resulting in a yellow card for Tom de Glanville and a penalty try. 4
14 Darcy Graham: Made try-saving tackles in the opening half on Sam Underhill and Will Muir either side of his downfield hack becoming the genesis for Edinburgh’s opening try when Finn Russell’s clearance led to sub Mosese Tuipulotu scoring. 6
13 Matt Currie: Announced himself with his steal of a Russell pass, leading to the yellow-carded penalty against Muir at a critical stage after a slow Edinburgh start. Was excellent in taking the quick lineout that led to Tuipulotu’s try. 6
12 James Lang: Saved his best moment until the last moment of the first half when he attacked off an edge in his 22 and then glided past Muir with a crafty dummy. Battled hard but the pressure became too much, as evidenced by the way he couldn’t stop the Muir offload for the final Bath try. 6
11 Harry Paterson: Sadly lasted less than three minutes. He made a clever intercept in his 22 to pierce Bath’s initial pressure and followed it with a sweet offload in the tackle. However, his head smacked off the ground after he released the ball, and the resulting failed HIA ended his involvement. N/A
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10 Ross Thompson: Edinburgh’s early jitters were encapsulated by him hitting the upright with a straightforward seventh-minute penalty. Eventually settled and played vital parts in a couple of tries. His acceleration to exploit space for the 65th-minute Ali Price score was impressive. 6
9 Ali Price: Another who endured an underwhelming start – he shanked a fourth-minute kick ahead to ruin a try chance. However, he too bounced back influentially and despite some punishment from the clattering Underhill, he can take pride in how he denied Beno Obano a 49th-minute try before then handing Edinburgh a lifeline with his own score 15 minutes from time. 7
Back-row
8 Magnus Bradbury: Had his work cut out with Bath starting three opensides in Underhill, Guy Pepper and Miles Reid, but his defiant impacts gradually got Edinburgh into the contest after a sluggish opening. Will be disappointed he couldn’t get low enough to prevent Tom Dunn from scoring one of his two tries. 6
7 Hamish Watson: Produced a couple of trademark moments, such as driving Muir back with Bradbury on 29 minutes and then winning a 50th-minute penalty turnover on the Edinburgh line with Dunn threatening, but ran out of steam and exited 19 minutes before the end. 6
6 Jamie Ritchie: Another reliable player who had a shaky start, fumbling a Russell kick and then tackling Underhill without the ball in the lead-up to the opening Bath try. Rebounded from there to help his team take a deserved early second-half lead, but he will rue the penalty he conceded for tackling de Glanville in the air near halfway on 71 minutes with the score poised at 24-27. That was the beginning of the end for his team. 5
Tight five
5 Grant Gilchrist: An afternoon where his gritty impacts counted for a lot in making his team so competitive for so long against the Premiership leaders. His intelligence was seen in a fleeting carry near halfway five minutes before the break, and his team flustered at 7-12 down. A penalty ensued, and his team finished the half some minutes later with a score. 6
4 Sam Skinner: The foreman of the breakdown, his excellence was illustrated by the 24th-minute penalty-winning turnover near his team’s posts. His contribution was cruelly ended though as the pressure ignited by sub Javan Sebastian’s silly penalty led to the lock getting sin-binned on 49 minutes with the infringements mounting. 6
3 D’arcy Rae: Not an outing for the tighthead to reflect with fondness on as a couple of scrum penalties under pressure from Obano blotted the report card for his 44-minute contribution. 3
2 Ewan Ashman: Had to shoulder significant blame for a misfiring lineout during his 56 minutes as the regrets even included a rash decision to throw low to the front and lose possession midway through the opening half. His carrying at a maul was important, though, in sucking Bath in for the penalty try on the other side of the field. 4
1 Pierre Schoeman: Showed well in the early exchanges with his appetite to carry, but his engine had slowed down by the time he was hooked 14 minutes into the second half. 5
Replacements: Tuipulotu, Edinburgh’s fourth-minute sub, can feel pleased with his try but subs such as props Sebastian and Boan Venter made costly errors. Sebastian’s first action, for example, was illegal blocking at the restart after his team had just gone in front. This lack of pep from the bench then ended with Ben Muncaster not getting low enough to prevent Niall Annett from scoring. 2