A HEALTHY crowd of 4,250 watched the first friendly of the pre-season and the vast majority of Edinburgh's fans went home pretty happy with what they had seen. Two experimental teams erred on the generous, missed scores were only topped by missed t
ackles, but with three tries apiece, Edinburgh rightly ended on top courtesy of two conversions and a penalty.
"I've been here twice as a coach and I've lost both times," said Wasps coach Shaun Edwards. "I only hope that when we come back here for the big Heineken Cup match we don't make it a hat-trick. That was a wake-up call for us."
Only at the sidelines, with the men in black unable to buy a lineout all afternoon, did the home side disappoint. If they give Munster the same leeway on the opening Friday of the Magners League it will cost them dear.
Edinburgh dominated long periods of this match, winning the contacts and the tactical kicking battle to boot, but the home side were unable to put points on the board when they held the whip hand, with only an early Phil Godman penalty to show for all their efforts. It should have been more.
Ben Cairns only lasted 20-odd minutes, but in that short time the Edinburgh skipper had already sliced open the Wasps defence before making a hash of scoring. One inside pass went to thin air when the centre could have tripped over his shoe lace and still scored. Just minutes later and Cairns floated a pass to Hugo Southwell which the fullback spilled with the line begging.
Wasps are not Guinness champions for nothing and duly took a grip on the second quarter of this match, taking the lead with two well-worked tries, although the second, on the stroke of half time, would have had Andy Robinson tearing out his hair at the pathetic defence. At least Calum MacRae made one breathtaking cover tackle on Josh Lewsey to prevent another sure thing.
The second half opened with a bang and belonged to Edinburgh. Nick De Luca went over the Wasps line shortly after the restart before Godman started and finished the best move of the match. The little flyhalf latched on to a loose kick inside his own 22. The ball went through Matt Mustchin and Andrew Turnbull, the latter stepping Lewsey beautifully, before Godman popped up on the outside to take the scoring pass.
England breakaway James Haskell got one try back for the visitors before Geoff Cross brought the house down. The replacement prop has grown up in the shadow of Euan Murray but his time may still come. Collecting the ball on the Wasps' ten-metre line, Cross sprinted away from the defence before rounding Mark Van Gisbergen as though the fullback wasn't there. There was still time for Edinburgh to squander another couple of scoring chances before the whistle blew.
Edinburgh: H Southwell (C Paterson 40 min) M Robertson, B Cairns (Capt)(C MacRae 23 min), N De Luca (H Southwell 64 min), S Webster; P Godman (D Blair 55 min), G Laidlaw (B Meyer 55 min) A Jacobsen (K Traynor 76 min), R Ford (A Kelly 40 min)(R Ford 78 min), G Kerr (G Cross 40 min), S Turnbull (C Hamilton 58 min), B Gissing, F McKenzie (M Mustchin 40 min), A MacDonald, S Newlands.
Wasps: M Van Gisbergen, J Lewsey (C Bishay 65 min), L Mitchell (R Hoadley 60 min), D Waldouck, T Voyce; R Flutey (J Staunton 40 min), E Reddan (Capt)(M Robinson 60 min), T Payne, R Webber (D Varley 65 min), P Bernard, T Palmer (D Leo 50 min), R Birkett, J Haskell, J Worsley (H Ellis 60 min), J Hart.
Scorers: Edinburgh – Tries: De Luca, Godman, Cross; Convs: Godman, Paterson; Pen: Godman. Wasps – Tries: Barnard, Voyce, Haskell
Referee: Andy McPherson
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