Rugby – Edinburgh v Glasgow, Guinness PRO12 and 1872 Cup

12 point margin secures narrow 1872 Cup win for Edinburgh

Trailing by 10 points going into Friday night’s second leg of the 1872 Cup series, Edinburgh looked to be facing an uphill struggle against the current Guinness PRO12 second placed side, Glasgow Warriors.

A fairly scrappy first leg in Glasgow resulted in a 16-6 victory for the home side, the match only really coming to life with a try for the Warriors from Josh Strauss. Initiated by Sean Lamont steamrolling over Tom Brown on the wing, Strauss was on hand to receive the final pass which put the lock over for the only try of the match. Two penalties from Edinburgh and three penalties and the conversion for Glasgow completed the scoreline, which would carry over – for the purposes of the Cup match-up alone – to BT Murrayfield.

Edinburgh flew out of the blocks from the start and were close to the opening score when Dougie Fife broke through the defence only to be pulled up a couple of metres out. A few minutes later, Fife was lucky to escape a yellow from referee, Nigel Owens. Chasing a clearing kick from Greg Tonks – who, incidentally, had a nightmare of a match by his standards – he ‘omitted’ to take off to challenge Alex Dunbar and ran straight through the centre while he was in the air. Somehow, Owens decided it was a fair challenge and he stayed on the pitch.

However, a short time after that incident, Finn Russell opened the scoring for Glasgow with a penalty following an Edinburgh scrum infringement. 3-0 to the visitors. On the 14 minute mark, Edinburgh gathered the ball from their own penalty lineout and set up a maul. The forwards rolled and rumbled up to within a metre or so of the line but Glasgow turned them over and cleared the ball upfield. Returning the ball into the Glasgow half, the home side then won a penalty of their own, which Sam Hidalgo-Clyne scored to draw the sides level at 3-3. He then followed this up around 10 minutes later to take the lead for Edinburgh, 6-3.

With Glasgow definitely on the back foot and playing well below par, another Edinburgh foray ended with Tim Visser scoring the first of his two tries on the night. Edinburgh secured the ball from a fairly poor clearance kick from scrum- half, Niko Matawalu, and attacked down the left side. With the defence pulled over, a couple of quick passes found Visser off his wing, in the centre, and he had a clear run in to touch down on the right. Hidalgo-Clyne slotted home the conversion and Edinburgh found themselves 10 points clear and level on aggregate with the 13-3 scoreline.

Following the restart, Glasgow managed to establish themselves just outside the Edinburgh 22, but couldn’t find a way through the defence and were going from side to side trying to establish a gap. Unfortunately, for them, a wide pass from Finn Russell was intercepted by Visser and with nobody in front of him, the Dutch flyer galloped the length of the pitch to dive in under the posts. Hidalgo-Clyne followed this up with the conversion and it was 20-3 to the home side with six minutes of the half remaining.

Two minutes into the second half and it looked like the ‘real’ Glasgow had turned up. Forcing the play into Edinburgh’s 22, a line out won the ball for the visitors and the unpredictable – at all points of the scale – Matawalu kicked the ball through the pile of forwards and chased after it. Seeing the ball late, Edinburgh’s Jack Cuthbert lost his footing and Matawalu beat the full back to the ball for the try. Russell missed the conversion so the score now stood at 20-8.

And, with more than 35 minutes still to play, that was the final score. Both sides had chances – Glasgow in the try department and Edinburgh with a couple of missed penalties – but overall the second half was a bit of a damp squib. The home side probably had the better of it, but with a few seconds to go they nearly threw the Cup away. Choosing to play safe with a short penalty kick to touch in their own half – and the lineout had been on fire all game, so what could possibly go wrong?! – Edinburgh then lost the ball to Glasgow who saw a chance to pull a few points back. However, it wasn’t to be and the hosts saw the ball off the field to win both the match and the 1872 Cup, 20-8 and 26-24 respectively.

Edinburgh remain in eighth in the Guinness PRO12, level on 24 points with Scarlets, but the loss meant that Glasgow failed to top the table and remain in second to the Ospreys with 39 points to their 40.

Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.