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Edinburgh Rugby star Sam Hidalgo-Clyne reckons last season's second-placed Challenge Cup finish makes them a prize scalp for their Pool Five rivals. - 10/11/2015 10:48
Edinburgh Rugby star Sam Hidalgo-Clyne reckons last season’s second-placed Challenge Cup finish makes them a prize scalp for their Pool Five rivals.
The Twickenham Stoop silver-medalists start their mission to go one-step further against Grenoble on Friday night. Alan Solomons will have his internationals to call on, in a pool stage campaign that will see his side will also face London Irish and Agen on their route to the quarter-finals. But Hidalgo-Clyne insists his side will focus solely on what lies ahead against the Top14 side.
He said: “You go that far and you make a name for yourselves so you're going to be targeted. We've just got to make sure that we don't get ahead of ourselves. We lost this week so we need to go back to the drawing board, work out the opportunities we missed and try and build on it. We always enjoy playing in Europe.”
Grenoble only managed a pair of wins against Femi-CZ Rugby Rovigo last season, but back Fabien Gengenbacher sees the Challenge Cup as a route into the promised land of the Champions Cup.
He said: “The level of competition in the Top 14 is very high and it is difficult to finish in the top six. This competition may help us reach the Champions Cup. There is also this goal of being qualified for the Champions Cup next year. But to get out of the pool would already be a great performance.
“Edinburgh always play hard this competition as we saw last season and have many international players. We played London Irish last year in two very different matches last season, one where one did not play well and the second away from home that we could have won. And then there is Agen, who will discover this competition and may wish to go far too.”
Match Facts
- Edinburgh have never faced Grenoble in this competition however they have won five of their last six matches against French opponents.
- Edinburgh Rugby are participating in their third Challenge Cup; they have won eight of their last 10 matches, finishing as runners-up in 2014/15.
- Grenoble have won just six of their 21 Challenge Cup away matches (D1, L14) and have never faced a team from Scotland.
- Edinburgh are aiming to avoid defeat in consecutive Challenge Cup fixtures for the first time since losing their opening three fixtures in the competition.
Edinburgh Rugby bounced back from their Challenge Cup final defeat to make the perfect start this season with a 21-10 victory over Grenoble. - 13/11/2015 21:34
Edinburgh Rugby bounced back from their Challenge Cup final defeat to make the perfect start this season with a 21-10 victory over Grenoble.
Cornell du Preeze was at the double to secure the comfortable triumph and banish the demons of last season’s Twickenham Stoop defeat to Gloucester. Daniel Kilioni gave the French side hope with a second-half try, but Edinburgh’s forward might was too much to handle.
The heavens opened ahead of kickoff at BT Murrayfield providing some tricky conditions underfoot. But that did not stop last season’s runners-up from making the perfect start after five minutes thanks to du Preeze. The back-rower was in the right place to fall on the ball at the back of a rolling maul.
It took 28 minutes for the next points in a tight affair, but it was last season’s star-man Hidalgo-Clyne with a penalty. He added another moments later to give Alan Solomon’s side an 11-0 lead at half-time.
Grenoble scrum-half James Hart narrowed the gap at a rain soaked Murrayfield to give his side hope with half-an-hour remaining. But it was that man Hidalgo-Clyne who was on target again to restore his side’s 11-point lead with another penalty. The Scottish side finally put the game put of sight after 62 minutes when their dominance up-front came to the fore.
They secured a scrum five metres from the Grenoble line and put the squeeze on to secure a penalty try – with Hidalgo-Clyne knocking over the conversion. Kilioni got a late try back for Grenoble, but it was not enough for a late losing bonus-point. And du Preeze finished the game as he started with a try before Greig Tonks converted for a 28-10 victory.
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