Warriors are Gunned down but loss will feel like a moral victory
EDINBURGH 10 GLASGOW WARRIORS 7 Edinburgh did just enough yesterday to claim the points in the first derby of the season, but they should have had the result in the bag long before the end.
It took them 65 minutes to open the scoring with a Jaco van der Walt penalty, and although they were soon 10-0 up after the standoff converted Magnus Bradbury’s try, they had to hold off a late Glasgow fightback before securing only their third PRO14 win of the season.
It was a deserved win alright, but it was also a moral victory for Glasgow, who scored through a late Lewis Bean try converted by debutant sub Ross Thompson.
The Warriors had gone three weeks without a game, with the bulk of their squad being in selfisolation as a Covid precaution for some of that time.
The first half of this first 1872 Cup game of the campaign was as toothless as it was scoreless. The second half was far livelier, but both teams were still well below their best.
The most-telling moment of the opening 40 minutes was Brandon Thomson’s missed penalty.
It looked a simple three points from pretty close to the posts, but the Warriors stand-off, whose failed last-minute conversion attempt had cost his team the game against Dragons last month, was again woefully off-target.
That first kick at goal came after 33 minutes, and there was nothing close to another scoring chance in the remaining seven before the break.
It was dismal stuff, and as they went in at half-time both teams knew they would have to find some pattern and purpose if they were to produce anything better in the second 40.
Thankfully, the tempo increased considerably right from the restart, with Glasgow in particular looking a lot sharper.
After 45 minutes they turned down a kickable penalty for a fivemetre scrum, but the Edinburgh pack comfortably held them at bay.
But that was inside their own 22, and for all their domination, Edinburgh continued to lack a cutting edge in attack.
Eventually, however, with just quarter of an hour left, they broke their duck.
Van der Walt is as nerveless as his opposite number,
Thomson, is jittery, and, presented with a penalty close to the Warriors 10-metre line, he made no mistake.
Glasgow needed to take chances if they were to get back into the game, but they fell further behind after 68 minutes after Sam Johnson failed to gather a high pass from the hapless Thomson.
Van der Walt hacked on from halfway, and Bradbury, on the field for barely a minute, won the race and touched down between the posts.
The stand-off converted to make it 10-0 and the game was all but in the bag.
To their credit, Glasgow kept fighting, and after a siege on the Edinburgh line, substitute lock Bean touched down. Thompson converted, having only come on for his Warriors debut in place of his near-namesake minutes earlier.
Barely 60 seconds were left by that point, and from the restart Glasgow were unable to launch a counter-attack from deep.
In the circumstances, though, they can take some comfort from the losing bonus, and certainly did enough to believe they have a good chance of turning the tables when the teams meet again at Scotstoun on Friday.
Edinburgh will be relieved that they did enough to win this one, and know they will have to play a lot better if they are to get the better of their old rivals in the rematch.