Edinburgh: Coach Mike Blair praises his side for ‘an outstanding effort’ in Bulls loss

Edinburgh coach Mike Blair praised his side for an impressive effort as they fell short against the Bulls in a narrow 33-31 loss in Pretoria.

Blair’s men played tremendously well as a Darcy Graham hat-trick powered his side into a position where they could claim a victory against Jake White’s Bulls.

However, veteran Morne Steyn was on hand to nail a late penalty and claim the game before Edinburgh’s Henry Immelman failed in his attempt to win it with a penalty in the last kick of the game.

Solid comeback

Blair was delighted with the character shown after a poor start and how his side came back into the contest giving themselves a chance to push for the win.

“Huge pride. It was an outstanding effort,” Blair told Edinburgh’s official website.

“The way we defended our line a couple of times, and the effort and work rate off the ball, was outstanding.

“It is getting that consistency and being switched on mentally at every moment because at this level if you drop off a couple of times that is when you concede points.

“It was definitely a disappointing start, the first quarter of the game. I didn’t think we were quite there mentally.

“We gave the Bulls a couple of easy ‘ins’ into the game by not being switched on enough.

“On the positive side, the way we came back from that and the guts, courage and skill we brought to the game was absolutely outstanding.

“There was too much of a cushion at the start but we got ourselves back into the position to win the game.”

No blame on Immelman

Blair did not lay any blame on Immelman after his missed penalty effort and praised the full-back’s performance on the day at Loftus Versveld.

“We were looking at that game exactly the same as if that kick went over or didn’t.

“The pride we spoke about was there throughout the game.

“Henry is not a front-line kicker but he stood up and wanted to do that.

“It was a difficult kick, he didn’t make it and of course he is distraught about it.

“He had an excellent game apart from that. The game was lost in that last 10 minutes and not with that kick.”