Edinburgh travelled to Glasgow on Friday for the first 1872 cup match of the season. It was a lovely warm still night at Scotstoun but the weather was just about the only highlight of the evening.
Overall Glasgow’s defence was aggressive and combined with Edinburgh inaccuracies and mistakes the Warriors were just too strong on the night. Edinburgh had 60% territory in the second half but just not enough was done with it.
In a season where Edinburgh’s back line has scored the majority of the teams tries both of our scores in this game came from short range drive by forwards which tells a tale of how we used the possession we had. And we did have decent possession at times.
Before the game I was happy with the selection because I felt the strength on the bench would be telling in the second half where Glasgow have fallen out of a few games of late. In hindsight we may have been better to have thrown everything at it in the first half rather than let Glasgow get a foothold in the game and some confidence for the second half. Thats the way it goes sometimes.
It boiled down to a few moments.
The first of those moments came after only 8 minutes. Glasgow were on the attack just inside Edinburgh's half near to the right touchline. Boffelli reached, and I mean he really reached, to try and intercept a pass but knocked it on. He was very lucky not to be yellow carded but survived. Unfortunately Glasgow still capitalised. They kicked to the corner and a few phases and a mere 2 minutes later without any change of possession they scored through Tom Gordon.
Edinburgh then went on to miss out on a couple of great breaks that had the possibility of tries at the end of them. A neat kick through by Chris Dean was chased down hungrily by Ramiro Moyano who was able to secure possession right under Glasgow’s nose. He popped it up to Henry Pyrgos who took it up the short side and only a good tackle 10 metres from the line halted his progress. He was unable to secure the ball and Glasgow turned it over.
Glasgow cleared it up field and Jaco Van Der Walt gathered it and passed to Mesu Kunavula who powered through into the Glasgow half and up to the 22 brushing off attempted tackles from Berghan and McDowall in quick succession. He was finally halted within the Glasgow 22 and had he managed to get the ball away as he was finally tackled it may have led to a score. He wasn’t and his attempted pass was intercepted and the home side cleared again.
The 28 minute mark however saw the moment that convinced me that this wasn’t going to be our night. With almost the entire Edinburgh side in the right hand side of the field Jaco attempted to find some space on the left side of the field with a crossfield kick. There was a lot of space out there to find and he did have time to pick his spot but instead managed to find the sole Glasgow player lingering in that location who managed the two steps he needed to catch the kick cleanly with ease. A couple of quick passes and a converted try for Glasgow. It felt like a body blow.
It wasn’t, however, a knockout blow and Edinburgh were still making chances. Matt Currie was able to run into space following a lovely flat pass by Dean and only a double tackle by Mackay and Cancielliere prevented him from reaching for the try. In the ruck that followed Mackay knocked the ball out of Pyrgos hands. The referee deemed it to be in the act of tackling and merely a knock on and awarded a penalty for offside. It was a debatable decision and could easily have been seen as deliberate in which case a penalty try would have been likely. As debatable as the deliberate knock on by Boff earlier in the game.
So 3 points only and if we had ended the half only 4pts behind I would have felt a little better but alas no. A kick through by Jamie Dobie was well fielded by Kunavula from behind his own line. He trucked it up the 22, took the contact and set up a ruck. Glen Young was next on scene and despite the fact that Pyrgos was literally in his shadow he decided rather than join the ruck, to pick up the ball and pass it to the feet of Moyano. Glasgow turned it over and were awarded a penalty meaning their 7pt margin was restored before half time.
Edinburgh did regain parity early on in the second half through the now predictable form of a Boan Venter drive but that was it for Edinburgh in the second half.
Glasgow restored their lead 10 minutes later. Henry Immelman, who currently holds the unwanted mantle of being the most turned over player in the URC was tackled after a lung busting run. From the resulting ruck, you guessed it he was turned over. In fairness he was unlucky on this occasion. The follow up player, Jaco Van Der Walt, inadvertently kicked the ball onto the Glasgow side. Canceilere gathered and made a break up the short side and a no-look pass to Josh Mackay allowed him an easy run in.
A couple of Ross Thomson penalties rounded out the victory for Glasgow and the final score had the appearance of an easy win which it really wasn’t. The home side did deserve it, no question. The fact that Edinburgh didn’t trouble the scoresheet after the 48th minute doesn’t help dispel that assertion.
So ‘nil point’ at Scotstoun and we are now in South Africa ahead of a south of the equator double header against Sharks and Lions.
We have travelled with a stronger squad than I anticipated although time will tell who actually plays and when but in any case this is going to be tricky.
The South African sides have played the last 2 rounds of the competition at home against celtic opposition and have a 100% success rate.
Sharks are now circling(see what I did there?) our fifth spot in the league and are only 4 points behind so will be able to smell blood (too much?) And if that's not enough pressure Stormers are playing Ulster in Cape Town and if they win we could end the weekend in 8th.
A big performance is needed. It's needed to puncture that winning streak the SA sides are enjoying and it’s needed if we are to retain any real interest in this competition.
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