Edinburgh winger Liam McConnell has strengthened his claim for a league place Scotland pick-up squad New Zealand in Nations Championship next month with a display of “world-class” destruction of facilities against Stormers on Friday.
The 22-year-old, who enjoyed his Test debut against Barnstorming USA last November in a breakthrough season at club level, he provided further evidence of his growing talent to help the capital continue their winning start to the new URC season.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend and forwards coach John Dalziel were at the Hive Stadium to see McConnell play a leading role as Edinburgh followed up a scintillating first win at Ulster with a narrow but vital 17-13 win to keep the momentum going.
The Stormers, despite playing into a strong wind and trailing 3-0, looked set to take control of the game in the second quarter after forcing a series of penalties from the hosts.
But between the 25th and 40th minute, the Cape Town side lost seven of their eight lines. Impressive lock Glen Young stole the first before McConnell took over as destroyer-in-chief, making three Stormers disposals.
Such was the pressure on Stormers hook Vernon Paul, an early replacement for Ntuthuk Mchunu, that he was pinged for not throwing straight on the next two occasions, while the visitors were also penalized for men leaving the line prematurely in their desperation to launch their driving strike.
“The Stormers were a huge threat and with their pack they tend to dominate the opposition,” Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt said. “We knew we had to try and disrupt them at the source and if we were able to contain that and string the phases of the game together we would have them in trouble.
“Liam McConnell fighting for the squad was world class and we prepared for that really well during the week. With (Edinburgh forwards coach) Steve Lawrie and obviously Liam, who was our main contributor, we destroyed their line-up. They couldn’t get going or get any momentum from it.
“They even went for the posts (kicking on goal) at one stage of the game, so we really got under their skin. Obviously, that got us over the line in the end, disrupted that last line and won the match on the floor.”
A faulty Stormers lineout also led to Edinburgh’s first try after 57 minutes. With McConnell leading the way and Young in the middle, both challenging for the layup, Paulo again missed his jumpers and Jerry Blyth-Lafferty took over the layup.
Edinburgh substitute Whore fired a long pass to James Grayson in midfield and from the ensuing handball, Blyth-Lafferty weaved his way through two Stormers guards and then rounded another defender on a strong break before offloading it to McConnell.
The Robbers’ back line was briefly halted, but prop Paul Hill’s close-range finish put Edinburgh 10-6 ahead, and a yellow card for Stormers wing Seabel Senatl also gave them a man advantage.
That was quickly extinguished when Edinburgh winger Freddy Douglas was booked for stretching the patience of referee Eoghan Cross with his third foul.
Despite the line-up issues, the Stormers’ pack flexed their muscles in scrum time, with one try for Wandisile Simelane ruled out for a foot in contact before another dominant Stormers scrum saw No.8 Hajjivah Dayimani stretch to regain the lead.
“We were against it with the yellow card and giving them too many penalties and it felt like we were starting to lose all the little battles and battles,” McConnell said.
“It was just a case of ‘win the next moment’ and try to change the momentum. We found a way to change it quicker than last week and then we got back on the front foot again.”
Edinburgh finally managed to string several phases of attack together with nine minutes remaining, James Grayson firing a long pass which deflected twice before reaching 19-year-old substitute winger Rory McCaffi, who marked his home debut by rounding Senatla to score in the left corner.
Grayson’s brilliant lineout conversion made it a four-point game, giving Edinburgh the cushion to continue to challenge the Stormers’ lineout in the final kicks. The visitors sent the final penalty into touch in an attempt to get the winning score, but Edinburgh again sent in their disruptors, Young pouncing on the loose ball to seal victory.
This meant that Edinburgh won the first two league games for the first time since 2023. Zebras in Parma, where they lost last season, and the previous season they could only draw.
“We’re finding ways to win games that we haven’t done before,” said McConnell, who also had 11 sacks and 11 tackles in the impressive display.
“There are some things the coaches can fix but it’s the same with the players, we’ve had to look at ourselves over the summer and figure out what we can do to try and win these close games.”
If McConnell maintains his current form, there’s a good chance he’ll mix it up with Matt Fagerson, Josh Bayliss and Jamie Ritchie for a place in Scotland to face All black people, Australia and Japan at Murrayfield next month.
An untimely injury kept him out of this year’s Six Nations tournament, but he won his second appearance off the bench against Fiji in July, and Fagerson started in the No. 6 jersey against Argentina and South Africa and Bayliss v Fiji.
“Obviously I’d like to play the biggest games but I’ve only played one (Test) at the time so I probably didn’t expect to be picked against the Springboks,” McConnell said this week.
“The World Cup would definitely be a goal, but I think to be a part of it, I’d probably have to play some more high-pressure games in Scotland first. I doubt you might have gone to the World Cup if you hadn’t played any Six Nations match or against a first tier country.
“There’s a lot of competition in the back row especially, so the better we play for our club, the better chance we have of playing in these bigger games for Scotland. There’s no time to show what you can do when you’re in camp, so it’s all about what you can do here for your club. You’ve got to do well in these first four or five games. You might not be able to pick the All Blacks yet, but you can do it for the All Blacks.”