Edinburgh Edged Sale By The Tightest Of Margins
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Edinburgh edged the Sale Sharks by the slightest of margins with a 16-15 away win in round 2 of the Champions Cup.
Edinburgh had a chance to open the scoring with a penalty just three minutes in, but their attempt went wide. Ten minutes later Sale crossed for the first try of the match after a quick throw in saw them shift it to Denny Solomona on the right to cut inside to finish. Sale had their second try around the midpoint of the first half as Rohan Janse van Rensburg got outside his man to crack on the pace to race in for the score which saw the hosts take a 12-0 lead into the halftime break.
Edinburgh got on the board around the 51 minute mark with quick hands seeing Mark Bennett run a good line through the gap to score to make it 12-7. Edinburgh managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over, slotting two penalties in quick succession to see them hit the front for the first time in the match 13-12 with around 18 minutes remaining.
With a little over ten minutes to play, the Sale Sharks regained the lead with a penalty, but a minute later they were reduced to 14 players as Jean-Luc du Preez was sent to the sin bin for a shoulder charge. The resulting penalty saw Edinburgh with their noses in front 16-15. Edinburgh managed to control the final minutes of the match to notch up their first victory in this season's Champions Cup, while it's back to back defeats for the Sale Sharks to start the tournament.
Top Performers:
Rohan Janse van Rensburg
The 26-year old was fantastic on attack this evening as he managed 127 metres with the ball in hand and beat 4 defenders in the process. He also managed to score a lovely try in the first half which gave his side 12 point lead at half-time.
Rohan janse van Rensburg 🔥pic.twitter.com/YEfAklDp9c
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) December 19, 2020
Hamish Watson
The flanker was named the man of the match this evening for his brilliant second-half display. Watson made 17 tackles this evening and also carried the ball up on 10 occasions.
Jaco van der Walt
The No. 10 scored 11 of his team's points this evening and that gave him a 80% kick success rate. Another impressive statistic was that he made 100% of his tackles!
