GLASGOW Warriors’ two Champions Cup wins over Racing 92 suggested they are a more mature team than they have been in recent seasons, and their 25-12 defeat of Edinburgh surely provided proof of it. Each match was a very different kind of encounter, with the fact Gregor Townsend’s team ended on top each time showing how versatile they have become.

For centre Alex Dunbar, the key to bringing a three-game losing run against Edinburgh to an end on Boxing Day was the extra smartness his team have acquired this season. Not only did they make excellent use of the possession they had, according to the Scotland cap, they also became calmer in defence the longer the game went on, restricting their rivals to four penalties.

“When we got the ball we played smarter than we did the last couple of years,” Dunbar said. “Sometimes we get drawn into playing a game we don’t want to play. I think we’re a bit smarter this year and didn’t allow ourselves to get dragged into that.

“As defence leaders on the pitch we talked about giving away penalties. Boys were not quite accurate enough at the breakdown and were giving away penalties that kept them in our half and put us under a wee bit of pressure.

“We were clinical when we got the chances. We just didn’t have a lot of ball and didn’t get into shape at times as we would want to. That hurt us a bit in the first half, but when we got into our shape we did create a little - but we need to work on getting into our shape more often.”

Dunbar revealed that the opening score of the game, a try by Junior Bulumakau after barely a minute, was a pre-planned move. Dunbar himself kicked into space, and when Edinburgh full-back Blair Kinghorn failed to gather the ball, the big winger was there to touch down.

“It wasn’t too bad,” Dunbar joked. “It’s something we worked on through the week if there was space in the back field. I looked up and saw it.

“They defend with a lot of numbers in the front line so there will always be space in the back. It was always going to be hard for just one guy to cover it so we found space. The boys were talking and I put the kick through.”

The first two penalties from former Glasgow player Weir put Edinburgh in front for a short spell after that Glasgow try, but by half-time Dunbar and his team-mates were 15-6 up. The half-time talk was about doing more of the same: putting Edinburgh under pressure and waiting patiently for more chances to come.

“Concentrate on defence,” Dunbar said when asked to sum up the instructions at the interval. “We’re putting them under pressure and the big boys up front keep working on scrum, lineout and maul. The chances will come and we can break them down.”

After losing three on the bounce in the PRO12, the win over their oldest rivals has taken Glasgow to within a point of the play-off places. If they win again on Hogmanay against Treviso they could be back inside the top four.

“It was very important to get that win,” Dunbar said. “Before Europe we had a couple of tough results so we know we needed to pick up a win to try and get back into the top four.”

Edinburgh, meanwhile, are down in tenth, and are desperate for a win over bottom-of-the-table Zebre, who they meet on the last day of the year. The Italians have already won at Murrayfield, and scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne does not expect to have it easy in Parma.

“It’s always going to be a tough game, because they’re different beasts at home,” he said. “Short turnaround, so it’s going to be tough on the body, so we need to prepare well and recover well. Probably a lot of our preparation is going to be off the pitch in the classroom this week - really looking at where we need to be better and what we need to do on the pitch in our mini-groups.”

On another day Edinburgh might have scored several tries with all the possession they had against Glasgow, and Hidalgo-Clyne accepted that the issue was how to make most effective use of that possession. “We’ve certainly got to sort our breakdown work out, that’s for sure. We can’t go into every game having slow ball, because then we can’t attack.

“We don’t go into a game looking to be the best defensive team in the league, we want to start winning ball. We can’t go into games with the mindset of just defending.

“We need to start learning to do something with that possession. We need to start getting points, because otherwise there’s no point having it.”