SEAN EVERITT felt Edinburgh didn’t enjoy the bounce of the ball as they lost their final home game of the United Rugby Championship season to Munster.
Needing a victory to enhance their chances of making the playoffs, Edinburgh instead endured an agonising defeat that means they will likely now need to win their last match away to Benetton on June 1 to be sure of a place in the postseason.
Italian referee, Gianluca Gnecchi, infuriated the home crowd with some of his decisions, including letting go a late tackle by RG Snyman on Ben Healy and instead penalising Bill Mata for retaliation, with Munster claiming a bonus-point try from that infringement.
Everitt said: “I’m disappointed. I thought the guys really put in a good showing tonight against the top team in the URC. It’s really disappointing not to get the result. I think the bounce of the ball at times didn’t go our way.
“In these tight games the 50-50 calls have to go your way. We’ll have to review that. I thought maybe the boys were a bit unlucky in some of the calls - in tight situations you would like some of them to go your way.
“And the referee has got a job to do. We’ll have a look at it and go through the normal processes to see where we can get better.
“But it was really close and I think the team has improved, so we’ll take the positives out of it and if we can perform like this against Benetton we’ll get the result in Italy.
“It was great playing in a full stadium. The spectators have been amazing in supporting us this year. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the result tonight.
“I’m still a bit disappointed now to comment too much. I’m just pleased with how we’ve grown in all aspects of our game and it’s small margins that count in these big games.”
Everitt admitted the match against Benetton in Italy in a fortnight now becomes like a winner-takes-all cup final.
He added: “Yes it is. Depending on how the results go this weekend, we’ll probably need three points out of that game to make it safe. It’s going to be a tough game away. Benetton at home are really strong and they’ve got everything to play for as well.”
Edinburgh lost Wes Goosen to an ankle injury in the second half but Everitt hoped to get as many players as possible back for the Benetton game.
He added: “It looked like his ankle. We’ve got a week off now to recover, and hopefully everyone will be fit for the Benetton game.”
