Head coach Mike Blair said the disappointing way Edinburgh lost in Belfast on Friday night aptly summed up their frustrating season.
Blair’s final game in charge followed the pattern of their season — no shortage of effort but opportunities not taken as they fell to their 12th defeat in 18 games in the URC. And he admitted that the squad at his disposal should not be stuck in the lower reaches of the table.
“I felt we put a huge amount of effort into the game,” said Blair after the 28-14 loss at Kingspan Stadium where tries from Darcy Graham and WP Nel at either end of the match were never going to be enough to oust an Ulster side bidding for second place.
“I thought we came out of the blocks really well. We talked a lot about being hungry and creating energy when you are playing an away game and I thought we did that at the start and we put a lot of pressure on the Ulster team.
“Unfortunately we didn’t come out with enough points from the pressure, we only had one score, but then Ulster scored a really efficient try from a set-piece and it can be a kick in the teeth when that happens, when you put so much work in and you come out with seven points and then the opposition go and score a set-piece try. The effort was definitely there, the clinical nature of our game probably wasn’t. We created some overlaps on the edge but we didn’t finish them.
“But there’s lots of stuff we could package up and say these bits are really good, but unfortunately there are also bits you can package up and say what happened there? Why did we get that call wrong? Why did we try make that pass? So a little bit of our season in microcosm there where we do some good stuff but also where we do some stuff that allows the opposition into the game.”
It remains to be seen if Blair is part of the new coaching ticket but he believes there is a lot more in this squad, despite the six wins from 18 and without an away win since October.
“With the quality of the squad we have got we shouldn’t be at that end of the table,” he said. “We had a particularly rough period around Christmas, a really difficult fixture list, similar to Ulster around that period. I think we had the same amount of wins, I think we both had four wins out of 10 playing in the Champions Cup and the URC and we struggled to turn that around and regain momentum, whereas Ulster managed to do that.
“We have used 51 players this season and it is difficult to build cohesion. But, at the same time, Glasgow have been able to do that, they have built momentum. I believe they have done that through those victories in the Challenge Cup and that’s bound them together. They are playing with a lot of confidence now, they are changing around their selections, giving guys opportunity because everyone is confident and they are winning as well. Whereas, we had a tougher period over that time and it is harder to bring guys in and change your squad around and build cohesion within the squad.”
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