Just over 10,000 watched Edinburgh dominate their home match in the latest 1872 Cup series, only to come away wondering how they managed to lose.
Glasgow were first on the board with an early penalty from Duncan Weir, but Greg Laidlaw evened up the scoring after seven minutes following a sustained period of attacking play. However, a bit of indiscipline gave Weir a long range chance to take the visitors back into the lead, which he banged over to take the score to 6-3. It was to be the home side, however, who were to score the opening try. Edinburgh almost collected the ball from the restart, but, instead, forced Chris Cusiter into clearing from a ruck. The hosts then ran the ball straight back upfield to push Glasgow back once more. From the left, Laidlaw passed the ball in and the forwards set up on the 22. A couple of recycles, then quick ball to Greig Tonks was passed out to Cornell du Preez, who moved the ball on to Jack Cuthbert. Cuthbert then passed out of the tackle to Dougie Fife, who, in spite of DTH van der Merwe hanging on (top), crossed the line to score his second try in as many games. Laidlaw scored with the conversion and Edinburgh were 10-6 ahead.
Glasgow then had a few minutes of possession, but were unable to progress much beyond the 22, with the hosts covering and tackling anything and everything that moved. They did come away with three points, 
though, thanks to the boot of Weir. Once the ball was back with Edinburgh, they quickly moved the ball up the pitch again and this time Glasgow suffered the indiscipline as Laidlaw was smashed off the back of a ruck while minding his own business waiting for the ball. The offender, Tyrone Holmes, was carded and Laidlaw sailed another kick between the posts to retake the four-point lead. The visitors then lost Tommy Seymour to an injury sustained as he attempted to tackle du Preez and then all hell broke loose. Stuart Hogg, who had been up for a fight all night – and was still ‘fighty’ after the full time whistle – was tackled out wide and sent over the advertising hoarding, followed by Edinburgh’s Tom Brown. While ‘trying to recover them’ a wee scuffle broke out which ended up with Hogg and Brown being sent off for 10 minutes to cool their heels in the dugout. So, 13 v 14 and Edinburgh’s penalty. Off they went again only for the attack up the left to be pulled up less than five metres short as Cuthbert appeared to spill the ball. However, with advantage being played for another penalty, Laidlaw ‘netted’ another kick to go in at half time with Edinburgh ahead 16-9.
The first 20 minutes of the second half were, again, dominated by Edinburgh, with David Denton just being tackled into touch after a good cross field passing move was stopped five metres short. But, again, Glasgow were first on the scoreboard with a 50th minute penalty from Weir. A corresponding penalty for Edinburgh three minutes later was advanced 10 metres by the referee for dissent – when will football take this up? – but Laidlaw saw his kick pass agonisingly under the bar by a few centimetres, so the score remained at 16-12. A change of four forwards on the hour mark saw Glasgow step up the pressure a fair bit, which forced another penalty and another three points from Weir. 16-15 (queue ‘Jaws’ music….).
Once again Edinburgh went on the offensive, but once again, Glasgow held their lines. And then it all went wrong. With 13 minutes left and the visitors in possession from turnover ball, 
a couple of passes had the ball with Alex Dunbar. Tonks attempted a tackle, but Dunbar slipped through and handed the ball to van der Merwe. With his route to glory blocked, a neat kick over the defenders had three Glasgow players charging through against Nick De Luca for the home side. And it was ‘bad boy’ Hogg who was first to the ball to touch down for Glasgow’s try and a four point lead. Weir missed his first kick of the night still left the score at 20-16 for Glasgow.
The final 10 minutes of the half were again dominated by Edinburgh, but a last seconds’ tackle by Dunbar forced Edinburgh’s Sam Beard over the line to end the match and leave Glasgow taking a four point lead into the second leg at Scotstoun on the 1st January. 2014… Already…
Images from the match will appear here over the next couple of days
