Glasgow do the double over Edinburgh
Enjoying their first win on Edinburgh soil since 2000, 22-15, Glasgow Warriors scored the only two tries in Saturday’s 1872 Cup decider as they maintained their grip on the Magners League’s top spot.
Foreign stars DTH van der Merwe and Bernardo Stortoni touched down in either half as Glasgow completed a memorable festive double over their fiercest rivals Edinburgh, with Dan Parks, the Magners League’s latest centurion, supplying the rest of the visitors’ points.
As he did in last weekend’s clash in Glasgow, Chris Paterson kicked all of Edinburgh’s points – his fifth successful penalty rescued a losing bonus point for Rob Moffat’s men in injury-time.
The result saw the Sean Lineen-coached Warriors claim the 1872 Cup title and take the national bragging rights as they opened up a seven-point lead in the table over Edinburgh, who are slipping away from the play-off zone.
Glasgow’s efforts at a bitterly cold Murrayfield also bucked the trend in this Scottish derby – the previous twelve meetings between these two sides had all been won by the home side on the day.
Initially Edinburgh showed an improvement on the form they showed in last week’s 25-12 defeat at Firhill, but by the end they were well beaten, with Moffat’s charges now worryingly four games without a try.
There had been doubts Glasgow would be able to field the planned unchanged side from that which had beaten Edinburgh six days previously, however scrum half Chris Cusiter and hooker Dougie Hall were fit to start.
Instead, it was Edinburgh who were forced into late changes due to a viral infection hitting the camp.
Greig Laidlaw, himself a stand-in recently for Scotland cap Mike Blair, was replaced at scrum half by rookie Ross Samson who was making his Edinburgh debut, while on the bench Jim Thompson dropped out with Steve Jones taking his place.
Glasgow made the livelier start, taking a six-point lead within the first eight minutes thanks to the trusty boot of fly-half Parks, who was making his 100th league appearance just days after becoming the first player to score 1000 points in the competition.
The first score was a penalty awarded after Phil Godman threw out a loose pass with the ball hacked into the home 22. Then, following a lineout in the home 22, man of the moment Parks struck over a drop goal.
Edinburgh were on the back foot but got on to the scoreboard in the tenth minute. Full-back Paterson followed up his own up-and-under to turn his opposite number Stortoni in the tackle and kick the subsequent penalty.
Five minutes later Glasgow confirmed their early superiority with a slick five-pointer. The move began with a Max Evans break through midfield and finished with Parks side-footing the ball to the left corner where Canadian international van der Merwe touched down for the score.
Into the second quarter, Glasgow endured two setbacks when they lost van der Merwe to the sin-bin, after he interfered with airborne Mark Robertson, and just before the break, the visitors’ skipper Alastair Kellock saw yellow for tackling Samson early off a scrum.
While Glasgow were without van der Merwe, Paterson and Parks exchanged penalties and Paterson added another, as Kellock watched on from the sideline, cutting Glasgow’s lead to 14-9 after some heroic defence had kept the home side at bay.
Kellock had just returned when Glasgow scored their second unconverted try. Richie Vernon forced a five-metre scrum and from the pressure Parks produced a perfect kick for the unmarked Stortoni, who duly touched down.
Glasgow continued to dominate, although Paterson’s fourth penalty in the 66th minute kept Edinburgh in bonus point territory.
That seemed to have gone when Edinburgh hooker Ross Ford was sin-binned and Parks added his third penalty just moments later, but Paterson secured some late consolation for Edinburgh with the last kick of the game.
For Edinburgh:
Pens: Paterson 5
For Glasgow:
Tries: Van der Merwe, Stortoni
Pens: Parks 3
DG: Parks
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson (captain), 14 Mark Robertson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 John Houston, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Greig Laidlaw,8 Scott Newlands, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 Alan MacDonald, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Kyle Traynor.
Replacements: 16 Sean Crombie/Andrew Kelly, 17 Allan Jacobsen, 18 Craig Hamilton, 19 David Callam, 20 Ross Samson, 21 Nick De Luca, 22 Jim Thompson.
Glasgow: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Richie Gray, 4 Alastair Kellock (captain), 3 Moray Low, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements:tbc
Referee: Peter Allan
Assistant Referees: David Changleng, Ronnie Dumma
TMO: Ian Ramage.
