Edinburgh 17 Leicester 12:Andy Robinson moved to Edinburgh in the autumn to rebuild his reputation. Marcelo Loffreda, in contrast, arrived in England two months ago after eight years in charge of Argentina, during which time he had lifted the Pumas to third in the IRB rankings and the World Cup semi-finals. A 39-0 defeat of Edinburgh in his first real Heineken European Cup match in charge represented a promising start for the shrewd Argentinian.
Two months on and the pictures have changed. Robinson has taken Edinburgh on a run of six wins from seven games since that Welford Road hammering, while Leicester have added defeats to Toulouse and the Scots to an opening cup reverse at Leinster in a four-wins-from-seven run.
After 15 minutes of Saturday's game Andy Goode, Leicester's consummate controller, had knocked over two penalties and, struggling with their set-piece, Edinburgh appeared to have been caught cold in the freezing Murrayfield environs.
Leicester's suffocating mauling game was repelled well and despite losing lock Ben Gissing to the sinbin for his part in an off-the-ball fracas, Edinburgh struck for the game's first try minutes before half-time. It stemmed from a penalty kick to touch and good forward driving from the Edinburgh pack, and when the ball was whizzed wide right Phil Godman, the home outhalf, slipped a tackle by Christophe Laussucq, Leicester's scrum-half, on a direct line to the posts.
Goode put Leicester in front at the half-time whistle with another penalty, and Godman and Goode nudged the scoreline up to 12-10 early in the second half. In the third quarter Edinburgh widened their attack and after Ross Rennie forced a turnover near his line, the whole home team flooded upfield in a swift attack finished by Ford crashing over the Tigers line.
Leicester had lost their hooker George Chuter to the sinbin by that point, but even with him restored they lacked the imagination to pluck from a terrific finale a match-winning try.
EDINBURGH: Southwell; Cairns, De Luca, Houston, Webster; Godman, Blair; Jacobsen, Ford, Kerr (Allori, 71), Mustchin, Gissing (Hamilton 40), Reid (MacDonald 60), Rennie, Hogg (capt).
LEICESTER: G Murphy; J Murphy, Smith, Mauger, Varndell (Hipkiss, 61); Goode, Laussucq (F Murphy, 65); Ayerza, Chuter, White, L Deacon (Crane, 64), Kay, B Deacon (Kayser, 56), Croft, Corry (capt).
Sinbin: Edinburgh: B Gissing, 30 Leicester: Chuter, 47.
Referee: P Fitzgibbons (Ireland).
