Exiles deluge has Edinburgh gasping for air

London Irish 24 Edinburgh 8

So much for the big Scottish statement, so much for the demise of London Irish. Edinburgh were in good heart as they headed south for the game that would both underline their dramatic improvement under the All Black leadership of Todd Blackadder and confirm them as a team capable of making the Heineken Cup cut at the end of the pool stage.

Their heart was not the only thing broken on a miserable afternoon in the Thames Valley: they retreated north with a fractured scrummage, a busted midfield and several heavily bruised egos.

London Irish, on the other hand, started angry and finished happy. Their director of rugby, Conor O'Shea, had been alarmed at a recent lack of physicality in his players' approach, but with Kieron Dawson and Paul Gustard in full warpaint, and Brendan Venter igniting a defensive furnace at inside centre, the Exiles' opening 20 minutes made up for pretty much everything that had gone on – or rather, not gone on – since the start of September.

"It is down to attitude, intensity and unity," said O'Shea. "Without unity we have nothing. Rugby players are good at talking the talk, and we've had people all fiery-eyed in the dressing room who failed to take that fire with them on to the pitch.

"This isn't about coaching, but about individuals making decisions for themselves. You either set the right tone and earn the respect of your peers and your supporters, or you let everyone down. In this game, we set the tone from the start."

Dawson's tackling, Gustard's naked aggression and Declan Danaher's alert support work gave London Irish an immediate edge in the collision area, and this was as central to the outcome as the Exiles' front-foot scrummaging and Naka Drotske's faultless display of driving and ball-carrying. Edinburgh's loose trio of Blackadder, Martin Leslie and Simon Taylor posed the most obvious threat to the home side's ambitions in this tournament – Taylor may be the most creative footballing No 8 to emerge in these islands in a decade – but they were comprehensively out-scrapped.

Indeed, the Edinburgh side as a whole struggled to live with the early pace, and conceded 18 points – an awful lot in the best of conditions and a suicidal amount in yesterday's rain-sodden swirl – in the opening half-hour.

Darren Edwards claimed the first try from close range, Michael Horak made a clean break down the left before finishing on the opposite diagonal, and Barry Everitt contributed a conversion and a couple of penalties. The busy Allan Jacobsen managed a reply of sorts four minutes before the break, but there was little prospect of the Scots constructing anything meaningful on the foundations laid by their loose-head prop.

There must have been times when Jacobsen, as committed as any of the visitors, wondered whether he was wasting his energy. His fellow prop, Craig Smith, was given a fearful seeing-to by Mike Worsley, the one London Irish player to make either of the England squads selected by Clive Woodward last week, and when Worsley retired with an arm injury 11 minutes into the second half, poor Smith copped another load from the 18st 10lb Neal Hatley. Unsurprisingly, he failed to go the distance.

To make matters worse, Blackadder was sent to the sin-bin by Antonio Lombardi, the Italian referee, who was probably the only person who felt the New Zealander had committed any sort of offence. The moment the Edinburgh captain reached the dug-out, Everitt bounced a 52-metre drop goal off the bar. It was that sort of day, sadly for him.

London Irish: Tries Edwards, Horak; Conversion Everitt; Penalties Everitt 3; Drop goal Everitt. Edinburgh: Try Jacobsen; Penalty Hodge.

London Irish: M Horak; P Sackey, G Appleford, B Venter, J Bishop; B Everitt, D Edwards (K Barrett, 70); M Worsley (N Hatley, 51), N Drotske, R Hardwick (S Halford, 45), R Strudwick (capt; Hardwick, 78), K Burke (G Delaney, 62), D Danaher, K Dawson, P Gustard.

Edinburgh: D Lee; S Webster, B Laney, A Dickson (T Philip, 71), C Paterson (C Joiner, 66); D Hodge, M Blair (G Burns, 71); A Jacobsen, D Hall (C Di Ciacca, 53), C Smith (J Brannigan, 66), N Hines, S Murray (G Perrett, 76), T Blackadder (capt), M Leslie (A Dall, 73), S Taylor.

Referee: A Lombardi (Italy).