Wilson hails Warriors as derby victory caps milestone for Harley

Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson hailed his players for marking Rob Harley’s 250th appearance with a derby win.

Warriors beat Edinburgh 31-24 at BT Murrayfield to make it back-to-back Rainbow Cup wins against their rivals.

The scores were level after 40 minutes of endto-end action following tries from Chris Dean and Mike Willemse for Edinburgh and Matt Fagerson and George Turner for the visitors.

But Adam Hastings’ try on the cusp of half-time put Warriors in the driving seat and George Horne went over after some pressure from the visitors early in the second half.

Charlie Shiel’s 69thminute try set up a thrilling finish but Warriors held on to secure back-to-back derby wins and keep their Rainbow Cup hopes alive.

Wilson made nine changes to his starting line-up but his side produced an even better performance than the previous week.

“We certainly wanted to give Rob Harley a deserved performance to recognise what he has achieved,” Wilson told Premier Sports..

“Late in the season it’s finding those key things that motivate you. You could argue we went to Treviso without that but we certainly had an 1872 Cup to win last week, so that was a big motivation, and today was about Rob.

“There were a lot of different players and combinations and to do the double over Edinburgh is really satisfying.”

Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill admitted his players had been punished for indiscipline.

Cockerill, who had Pierre Schoeman sinbinned in the first half, said: “Some really good bits and some really average bits, a bit like last week.

“It was really good we stayed in the game and gave ourselves a shot towards the end.

“But I thought we were a little bit ill-disciplined. There were some good bits in the first half but when you give field position away for free and you are illdisciplined, you get punished, and that was probably the difference.

“The possession stats and territory stats were well against us and that shows on the scoreboard.” ● Ospreys maintained their interest in the Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup competition with a bonus-point 42-26 win over Dragons in an entertaining game at Rodney Parade.

Dewi Cross, Reuben Morgan-williams, Morgan Morris, Dan Evans and Max Nagy all scored tries for Ospreys, with Luke Price adding three penalties and four conversions.

Dragons’ hopes of progressing in the competition were extinguished by the loss as they were hindered by frequent scrum penalties and a general lack of discipline.

Jonah Holmes scored two tries for the hosts to take his tally to 10 in his last nine appearances, while Dan Baker and Rio Dyer also picked up tries and Sam Davies converted all three.

Rory Darge is congratulated after a try for Warriors.