Late Edinburgh down London Irish in Challenge Cup
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 18/12/15 10:51pm
John Hardie's late try secured an 18-15 victory for Edinburgh over London Irish and kept alive their hopes of progressing from Pool Five of the European Challenge Cup.
With nine minutes left on the clock at Murrayfield, Edinburgh were staring down the barrel of a 15-13 defeat to the Exiles - who ran in six tries to beat them 38-6 last week - but Hardie peeled off the back of a driving maul to score and fire them back into contention.
Third-placed Edinburgh are now level on points with London Irish, who were usurped at the top of Pool Five by Grenoble after the Top 14 side edged Agen 48-45 at the Stade Lesdiguieres.
Gerard Ellis put the Exiles in front with an unconverted try after five minutes, but that lead was eroded by a Tom Brown score, before Sam Hidalgo-Clyne added the extras and a penalty to give Edinburgh a 10-5 lead after 20 minutes.
Shane Geraghty split the posts for the first time to reduce the arrears, but Hidalgo-Clyne struck again with the boot to make it 13-8 at the interval.
Conor Gilsenan's try levelled the score after an hour and then Geraghty's successful conversion looked like being enough to secure victory until Hardie pounced late on.
Grenoble looked like missing out on the chance to take advantage of London Irish's loss, going into the last 10 minutes 45-34 down to Agen.
Late tries from Clement Gelin and Tino Nemani's second of the evening turned it around completely, while Gilles Bosch converted both to secure the victory after a crazy contest.