Edinburgh Rugby: what worked and what needs worked on after URC opening round

Sean Everitt’s side opened the new United Rugby Championship campaign with a 34-29 bonus-point victory at Affidea Stadium.

The visitors had led 34-5 at one point but a second-half rally saw Ulster score 24 unanswered points. Edinburgh managed to hold on and will host South African side the Stormers in round two this Friday at Hive Stadium.

Putting together a run of results was a problem for Edinburgh in the URC last season and it was only when they were out of the running for the play-offs that they managed to win two games in a row in the league.

Young was encouraged by what he saw in Belfast but knows the squad now needs to build on it.

Can't take our foot off the gas

“That's been one of the main things we've touched on, it's our consistency and backing up game upon game so I think it all comes from the training at the start of the week. We can't take our foot off the gas,” said the experienced second-row forward.

“The training standard has to be high again. We've got a bit of a correlation between us playing well and starting the week training well so there's a big onus on getting our recovery right, getting our reviews right and then hitting the ground running on Monday, ready for a big week at home. We'll also be buzzing to be back at the Hive.”

Stormers also made a winning start, beating Connacht 29-15 in Galway, and Young expects a physical battle on Friday.

“You always get that with the South African teams and also they throw the ball out a lot,” he said.

Perfect dress rehearsal

Young believes Edinburgh will need to be better around the scrum and lineout against the Stormers.

“Our attack was really good [against Ulster], our set-piece still had work to do. I think it was better than it has been in pre-season but we need a good set-piece,” said the lock.

“And I think our discipline was really good on Friday night. I think away from home that's been a thing that we struggled with in the past.

“I think we had a kind of perfect dress rehearsal last week against Quins when our discipline wasn't really that good so that helped us this week.”