Prop Rory taunts: We ran game at a canter

SO you think you saw the best of Edinburgh in their victory over Glasgow Warriors last weekend? Think again. Confident prop Rory Sutherland believes Alan Solomons’ side only played at 50 per cent of their potential in their win. His bold boast that there is more to come from his men will crank up the temperature ahead of the latest clash with their arch rivals.

The Glasgow forward pack in particular will be aware it was out-muscled in the first match and their backs will be hurting at hardly seeing much of the ball.

To hear the assertion that the opposition was operating at half power can only add to Warriors’ discomfort, although one would fully expect Sutherland’s comments to be pinned to Glasgow’s dressingroom wall tomorrow.

The Edinburgh prop, who continues at loose-head in place of the injured first choice Alasdair Dickinson, insisted he remained confident his team could make it back-to-back derby wins as there was more to come from his team.

‘We were at 50 per cent of what we can do,’ Sutherland said. ‘We will bring another 50 per cent this week. I am confident we can and the boys are confident as well. I don’t see any reason why we can’t win again.’

Sutherland (pictured) added that it was ‘nice to see’ Glasgow had made five changes to its eightman pack as an admission they were second best in the first derby match.

‘They have obviously changed it because they know we have a good scrum,’ he said. ‘I can’t see them changing much in a week to be able to put up with what we are going to bring.’

Sutherland, when asked whether he could sense the forward dominnation during the first match, said: ‘Yes we could, when you are seeing how their forwards are coming up to us and we are smashing them back. It is a good feeling, it is a nice feeling.’

Sutherland, who has played eight Pro12 games this season, is hoping he can make such an impact tomorrow and catch the eye of Vern Cotter in time for the Six Nations.

He had the briefest of involvement in the World Cup when he was drafted into the Scotland squad as an injury replacement for Ryan Grant.

Although he never made the match-day squad, being involved in the build-up has whetted his appetite to be involved again.

‘It was nice to get a little taste and my ambition is to get a little bit more,’ said Sutherland. ‘The atmosphere, being in the Scotland changing room before and after the game, seeing what was said was a very good experience.

‘They say these derby games are the stage for the Scotland team. There is always a bit of extra pressure when it is the local derby, anyway, and the Six Nations will be at the back of my mind but I have to concentrate on the job in hand.’

He has been helped in his preparations for both derby games by the injured Dickinson, one of the loose-head props ahead of him in the Scotland pecking order.

The 32-year-old with 52 Scotland caps has been a mentor for the 23-year-old from Galashiels, who admits to have learned substantially from training alongside him.

Sutherland joked that in his early days as a prop in the professional game it was more ‘brute force and ignorance’ that got him by before Dickinson taught him more about the technical side of scrummaging.

‘Dicko has been starting in front of me most of the season but he has been good to me and helped me a lot,’ he said. ‘You can ask him to do little bits and bobs after training and he is happy to do that. The most important thing I have learned from him is the technical side of scrumming. When I came in, it was more brute force and ignorance I used to get by. ‘He helped me on the technical side, not exerting myself too much and using the pack more rather than trying to do it all

myself.’