Edinburgh 17 Leicester 12: Robinson sends Tigers home with tail between their legs
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Robinson cannot be far short of persuading Edinburgh's city fathers to erect a statue to him alongside the Scott Memorial in Princes Street. Since Robinson's arrival in Scotland as head coach he has transformed the Edinburgh rugby team from no-hopers to big hopefuls in the Heineken Cup. On Saturday at Murrayfield Robinson added Leicester to Leinster to bring an end to their European title hopes.
The cup campaigns of both have effectively been ended by Edinburgh, for whom this was their sixth win in seven games under Robinson. Edinburgh have 13 members in this week's Scotland squad, more than any other club, and are without doubt the strongest side north of the border.
Edinburgh travel to Toulouse next weekend when Leicester are at home to Leinster, with the good money on Toulouse to qualify from Pool Six. "I was bitterly disappointed by my side's performance," said the Leicester coach, Marcelo Loffreda. "We had three penalties in the last 10 minutes, yet didn't once go for goal. We could have won this game if we had kicked two more goals."
Robinson's Edinburgh had most of the bright ideas, the energy and an unbreachable will to win. They scored two tries and, in Phil Godman, they had the player of the match, who out-distanced Leicester's Andy Goode with a try, a penalty and two conversions. Ross Ford scored Edinburgh's other try while Leicester had only four penalties from Goode, three before the interval and one afterwards.
Edinburgh trailed 9-7 at the half-time and 12-10 when Ford went over for the decisive try. Having started so indifferently, Edinburgh gathered themselves to play some flourishing football, but, when all is said and done, they need to be more positive and win away from Murrayfield. Then we will know they have arrived.
Edinburgh: Tries Godman, Ford; Conversions Godman 2; Penalties Godman 2. Leicester: Penalties Goode 4.
Edinburgh: H Southwell; B Cairns, N De Luca, J Houston, S Webster; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Kerr (A Allori 71), M Mustchin, B Gissing (C Hamilton 40), R Reid (A MacDonald 59), R Rennie, A Hogg (captain).
Leicester: G Murphy; J Murphy, O Smith, A Mauger, T Varndell (D Hipkiss 61); A Goode, C Laussucq (F Murphy 65); M Ayerza, G Chuter, J White, L O'Deacone (J Crane 64), B Kay, B Deacon (B Kayser 55), T Croft, M Corry (captain).
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (Ireland).
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