'Goosen flawless again as Edinburgh advance'

An eventful early afternoon at the Hive on Sunday saw Edinburgh top Pool 3 in the Challenge Cup and secure a home tie against Lions of a different stripe on the first weekend in April.

The officiating team had a busy afternoon in particular. Two yellow cards for both teams and a red for Magnus Bradbury's transgression. Live in the stadium I thought the red card decision was a trifle harsh and that Healy's later sin-binning may have been worse. On review I still have some doubt but it is what it is.

At half-time I was a little concerned. We were down to 14 players and despite a 24-3 lead this is Edinburgh Rugby and anything is possible. Two early second-half tries from Matt Currie and Patrick Harrison eased those fears.

In any case Edinburgh got the job done despite only playing around 24 minutes of the match with a full complement. The biggest issue now will be picking a back row for our trip to Scarlets with an anticipated ban for Bradbury, Freddy Douglas' injury and the small matter of the requirements of the Scotland squad to contend with.

Luke Crosbie was the official man of the match. No complaints there as he definitely led by example but Wes Goosen was once again flawless. A scroll through the match stats show him prominent in every category except tackles. I think the problem here is that it's easy to overlook his contribution because he's been ever-present this season and is at least an 8/10 every week.

It was a good debut for Lewis Wells, deputising for Duhan van der Merwe. He was confident and competent in defence and attack and unfortunate not to get a try. I suspect we'll see more of him in the coming weeks.

With the pool stage complete, supporters of every team still in the competition are looking at a potential route to glory. I'm no different but am conscious that our next step on that hopeful journey is against a Lions side that inflicted a humiliating defeat on us not so long ago.

I feel we can take our revenge for that loss and progress in this competition. That said, we have five league games to deal with first so that optimism is a long way from being set in stone.

Sandy Smith can be found at The Burgh Watch