HANDING OUT A NEW YEAR GIFT
Glasgow fans fume as switch of venue boosts their rivals
Decision will be warmly welcomed in Edinburgh
YOUR season is stuttering, your title defence wavering, you’ve just been beaten by your arch rivals — and now you have given away home advantage for a crucial encounter you must win by some margin. Little wonder then that Glasgow fans were irate yesterday.
Given the complexities of Warriors’ immediate fixture list, it is difficult to find an alternative solution to the problem of where and when to hold tomorrow’s 1872 Cup conclusion — but it is safe to say the decision to take the game back to BT Murrayfield was not met with universal approval.
Many fans took to social media to voice their displeasure as soon as it was announced the sodden Scotstoun pitch was not fit to stage tomorrow’s encounter with Edinburgh as Gregor Townsend’s team attempt to overturn a 23-11 reverse from the first leg.
Many were fuming at the decision to hand such an advantage to their Edinburgh rivals while others questioned whether Sky Sports’ determination to screen the game live had weighed heavily on those who had made the call.
With Scotstoun tickets valid for the Murrayfield encounter, those fans were also working out the logistical difficulties of travelling to Edinburgh en masse for the game and a return journey that will see most arriving back late in the evening.
Glasgow officials insisted they had tried alternative options but few stadia were available to house such a large crowd at such short notice.
And rearranging the game for later in the season was certainly not an option. Glasgow already have three games crowding their fixture diary that have been moved for one reason or another.
They had to rearrange a Pro12 home game against Leinster that was postponed in November due to a water-logged pitch. Next weekend they play a European Champions Cup match against Racing 92 that was cancelled after the Paris atrocities. The knock-on effect of that forced Glasgow to postpone a Pro12 clash against Treviso until later in the season.
Yet the prospect of allowing Edinburgh the luxury of playing on home soil remains the real bugbear. Edinburgh’s record in Glasgow makes for grim reading — they have not won on the west side of the country for 12 long years.
Therefore, the announcement that the game is instead at Murrayfield will certainly have been warmly received in Edinburgh.
There was to have been an 8,000 capacity crowd at Scotstoun to roar Glasgow on. The question is: how many of them will now travel to Murrayfield on the first Saturday after the New Year? And how many more Edinburgh fans will turn up to swell the support?
There were more than 23,000 for the first derby match. After watching their team win, will even more decide to come along?
Also, what of the Glasgow players? The tactical plans hatched by Townsend and his backroom staff will surely have to be rewritten. The decision to rest Finn Russell for the kicking style of Duncan Weir may backfire in Murrayfield’s cavernous spaces.
Still, they will have to get over the disappointment of not playing at home pretty quickly and that they are returning to the scene of one of their worst performances of the season.
‘We need to just go for it and attack them,’ said Mark Bennett, one of the few Glasgow players to earn pass marks in the first derby defeat. ‘We need to stick to what we know and take the game to them. We are at our best when we go for it.
‘Edinburgh defended really well and put us under a lot of pressure and it looked like there wasn’t any space for us to attack, so fair play to them.
‘But Big T (Taqele Naiyaravoro) was cut out of the first game. We did not create enough opportunities to get him properly up to speed. This time round, it will be a case of getting him involved as much as we can and attacking Edinburgh. ‘In the first half against Edinburgh, we only kept the ball for five phases maybe two times. That is not Glasgow. That is not what we do. When we keep the ball, that is when our backs come into their own.’
Bennett (below) may have scored a fine try against Edinburgh but it was the only time his side managed to get over the opposition line. That was a poor return for a side who have scored 21 tries in nine Pro12 matches compared to 17 touchdowns in 10 for Solomons’ team.
Now they must get over the logistical difficulties of playing at Murrayfield if they are to avert a second reverse.
‘To play the same opposition two weeks in a row doesn’t happen very often and gives us a chance to make amends,’ said Bennett. ‘We know exactly where we went wrong. We have to play our natural game and go for it. ‘We have Duncan Weir playing this week and he is going to pin the corners and control the game. The first thing on our mind is a win as four points is most important. ‘If we can build a win and get in a strong position, then we will go for more than 12 points to try to win back the Cup.’