Eight-try Edinburgh fly past Bayonne for bonus point
Today at 01:05 AM
MATCH REPORT: Edinburgh claimed a dominant 52-12 home win over Aviron Bayonnais on Friday, to go top of Pool Three after two rounds of the Challenge Cup season.
It did not take long for the Scottish side to prove their might, with Matt Currie opening the score after just 10 minutes.
Mosese Tuipulotu was next to add his name to the scoresheet just before the half-time mark which, after being duly converted by Ross Thompson, gave Edinburgh a 12-0 lead over Aviron Bayonnais at the halfway mark.
It was just the start to the second-half that Aviron Bayonnais would have wanted, with Lucas Martin converting in the 42nd minute for the visitors.
This seemed to light a fire in Edinburgh's bellies with Darcy Graham hitting back minutes later for the hosts.
The nip-and-tuck start to the second-forty carried on in the same vein with Bayonne's Baptiste Germain keeping the visitors within touching distance of Edinburgh.
But it was not long-lived for the French side, who saw themselves further behind on 50 minutes when Duhan van der Merwe touched down for the Scottish side's fourth try.
Having reached cruising gear, the touchdowns kept coming for Edinburgh with Darcy Graham, Tom Dodd (twice) and Jamie Richie sealing a memorable eight-try win for the Scottish hosts.
[rp-mc-teams-match-summary id="243|943435|2025"][/rp-mc-teams-match-summary]
The scorers
For Edinburgh
Tries: Currie, Tuipulotu, D Graham 2, Van der Merwe, Dodd 2, Ritchie
Cons: Thompson 3, Healy 3
For Aviron Bayonnais
Tries: Martin, Spring
Con: Lopez
Yellow cards: Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh, 12), Esteban Capilla (Aviron Bayonnais, 15)
Teams
Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Matt Currie, 12 Mosese Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Ali Price, 8 Magnus Bradbury, 7 Luke Crosbie, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist (captain), 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 Paul Hill, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Tom Dodd, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Ben Healy, 23 James Lang.
Aviron Bayonnais: 15 Cheikh Tiberghien, 14 Aurélien Callandret, 13 Arnaud Erbinartegaray, 12 Guillaume Martocq, 11 Tom Spring, 10 Camille Lopez (captain), 9 Baptiste Germain, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 7 Baptiste Heguy, 6 Esteban Capilla, 5 Veikoso Poloniati, 4 Denis Marchois, 3 Pascal Cotet, 2 Lucas Martin, 1 Andy Bordelai.
Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Swan Cormenier, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Rémi Bourdeau, 20 Noa Traversier, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Joris Segonds, 23 Nadir Megdoud.
Referee: Morné Ferreira
Assistant referees: Aimee Barrett-Theron, Christopher Allison
TMO: Marius Jonker
* Source: @ChallengeCup_
