Edinburgh Rugby reaction: James Grayson hailed amid nervy ending in Belfast

The visitors overhauled their coaching staff over the summer but retained Everitt as head coach despite a disappointing 12th place finish last season.

The early signs were encouraging as they won 34-29 at the Affidea Stadium but there were some nerve-shredding moments for Everitt who watched as his team’s 34-5 lead early in the second half was whittled down.

“Obviously there are only five points in it and they had the upper hand at the time, they had momentum in the game, but we'll focus on the positives,” said the coach.

A debut to remember for Grayson

The positives included a fine performance from stand-off James Grayson, one of five Edinburgh debutants. The former Northampton Saints playmaker, recruited from Japanese rugby, led the attack well and was involved in all four of Edinburgh's tries, scored by Freddy Douglas, Malelili Satala, Hector Patterson and Piers O’Conor.

Ulster hit back with three tries in eight minutes midway through the second half and a penalty by Jack Murphy brought them to within five points. With all the momentum behind the home side as they chased the try that would have earned them a draw or victory, Edinburgh managed to find fresh reserves to keep them out and ended the game in the Ulster half.

“I think that's the fight that we want to show within this team,” said Everitt. “We've shown a lot of growth because sometimes Edinburgh have been guilty of just slipping away in those pressure moments. I think that's what I'm proud of, is that we're able to come back, gather momentum and close the game out and win. That's really important for us.

“There are going to be times in a game where you're under the pump and I thought we did well in the first half. When Ulster gained momentum in our 22, we managed to win a penalty and win the lineout and then go all the way down and kick a three-point penalty. Those are the things we are working on.

“It takes maturity to do it week in and week out and we've got to show that going forward.”

Young men taking responsibility

Freddy Douglas and Liam McConnell impressed again but they were not the only youngsters to show up when it mattered. Replacements Jerry Blyth-Lafferty and Euan McVie both won important turnovers to wrest back control for Edinburgh in the final moments.

“I'm very pleased with these youngsters,” added Everitt. “We had 10 players under the age of 22 playing tonight in quite an intimidating venue. Not many teams come here and go away with a win. I'm glad they were able to come here and win. It gives them confidence going forward. It gives them a belief that we can win against big teams. At the same time, they worked incredibly hard in the pre-season.

“The injury list that we had last season certainly speeded up their development. They got more game time and I think they benefited from that.”

Speed of ball

Everitt had stressed in pre-season that he wanted Edinburgh to play with more speed compared to last year and the coach felt they showed positivity in that direction, particularly through Grayson.

“We worked on our speed of ball, we worked on our conditioning and we worked on our ball movement and it all came to show. I thought James Grayson managed his trips well, Hector Patterson gave him good ball at the breakdown but the forwards worked incredibly hard to get that speed of ball and the ball it's really difficult to defend against.”

Edinburgh will host the Stormers at Hive Stadium in round two of the URC on Friday. Ulster, who picked up two bonus points, will travel to Glasgow Warriors. The Ulster tries came from Michael Lowry, Zac Ward, Dave McCann and Keynan Knox.