Free-falling Edinburgh Rugby's hideous defeat lays bare gulf - why reaction needed to ease Sean Everitt scrutiny

The 55-21 loss to the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg was Edinburgh's heaviest since the United Rugby Championship began in 2021 and the first time they had conceded more than 50 points in a match since Racing 92 beat them 56-3 in the last 16 of the Champions Cup in Paris in the 2020-21 season.

Such was the Lions’ dominance in the first half at Ellis Park they were averaging more than a point a minute and went in at the turn 48-0 ahead. It was a record half-time score in the history of the URC/Pro14/Pro12/Celtic League.

Edinburgh at least stemmed the bleeding in the second half, scoring three converted tries, but it was too little too late against a side who have never made it to the URC play-offs.

Previous matches with the Lions have been close affairs and there had been little to suggest Edinburgh would crumble in the manner they did. Sean Everitt’s side beat them 17-16 at home last season. The year before that, a late penalty from Gianni Lombard gave the Lions a 22-19 victory in Edinburgh, and in the inaugural season of the URC the Lions won 15-9 at Ellis Park.

All tight games between sides who last season were scrapping for a top eight place. On Saturday, the gulf looked huge and Edinburgh now find themselves sitting second bottom of the URC with no wins from three. And it’s not about to get any easier. For the third week in a row they will face South African opposition, with the Stormers due in Scotland this weekend.

Everitt needs a big reaction from his players to try to get their season back on track and ensure his own position doesn’t come under further scrutiny. They produced something more akin to the real Edinburgh during the second half in Johannesburg but there was little to motivate the Lions by that stage after they had run in seven unanswered first-half tries.

Everitt spoke afterwards of his frustration at his players’ failure to execute their game-plan. Edinburgh’s loose kicking gave the Lions all the ball they needed and they exploited it ruthlessly and, at times, with impressive panache. Rabz Maxwane scored a hat-trick, the other winger, Edwill van der Merwe, bagged a double, and there were also tries for Quan Horne, Rynhardt Jonker and Francke Horn.

Edinburgh’s second-half response came via tries from Grant Gilchrist and replacements Patrick Harrison and Ben Muncaster. Ben Healy (2) and Ross Thompson added conversions.

“You learn a lot when you win and you learn more when you lose,” Everitt said afterwards. “You never want to learn while you're losing. I think we've got to look at the two halves separately and say, well, why did it work in the second half and not work in the first half?

“I think it's blatantly obvious that we conceded five transition tries, so we know we need to respect the ball more. We know that we can't give opposition opportunities like we did. We can't give opposition field position like we did through giving away penalties and conceding turnovers.

“When we tightened the game up and we took the bull by the horns and credit to the leaders for that in the second half, this team showed it can perform.”

Edinburgh now need to do it for 80 minutes rather than 40.