'What a result': Edinburgh Rugby bask in South Africa glory as Blair Kinghorn singled out

Defeating a Cell C Sharks side 21-5 fielding several World Cup winners including prolific try-scoring winger Makazole Mapimpi and captain Siya Kolisi was an important statement by Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon.

It was the first win by a northern hemisphere side in South Africa since the launch of the United Rugby Championship at the start of this season, but that one result will count for little in the final shakedown if the men from the Scottish capital fail to follow it up in their four remaining matches of this league campaign, starting with their next challenge against the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg this coming Saturday.

Edinburgh are now two points off fourth in the URC table, which is where they want to finish in order to secure a home draw in the play-offs. Another success in their second and final match of this mid-season mini tour to South Africa would massively boost their chances of achieving that goal, but they are up against a Lions side who have won three home games on the bounce during the last three weeks, including a 23-21 triumph over third in the table Munster and a 45-15 dismantling of Ospreys on Friday night, so it is not going to be easy.

Centre Mark Bennett, who captained Edinburgh on Saturday, insists that he and his team-mates are looking forward to the challenge and he added that they are hoping for better overhead and underfoot conditions than they endured on Saturday so that they can play a more expansive game than was possible against the Sharks.

“It was horrendous, we were shown a video of the ground by our videographer when we were still at the hotel and it was torrential,” he said. “It looked like a pitch you could drown on! It’s been bloody roasting all week as well and then when it