THE 1872 Cup clash between Edinburgh and Glasgow at Murrayfield on Saturday will have an additional twist, over and above the fact this is the conclusion of the best-of-three competition.
Last December at the home of Scottish rugby, Edinburgh put one over on their arch-rivals with just 14 men after Simon Berghan was red carded and in winning that tie, Edinburgh gained a new level of confidence according to centre Chris Dean.
“I think that game, with 14 guys for most of the game, really showed just how much belief there is in our team and that will to win that, has maybe been argued, at times hasn’t been there in the past,” says Dean. “Everyone in the crowd, with that red card said, ‘oh, oh, here we go’ with them having scored so early on as well.
“I think it did create a believe in ourselves, whatever cards we are dealt we will deal with it and fight through it and we have done that in a lot of game after that - Ulster away, really fighting in the last 10 minutes and winning games.”
If the improvement in Edinburgh is visible from the outside, then, so it can be felt within the squad, says Dean.
“Definitely we have improved leaps and bounds. The top teams are just that bit ahead of us and that is the real hard bit. Marginal differences or improvements are the real hard bit and that is what we will be taking into the next few seasons.
“We have had a good season and we have made improvements, we have been working extremely hard throughout the year but it’s now the fine details.
“We don’t lose games we should probably win and we are creating more opportunities and scoring more tries and keeping them out. But it is the marginal differences that the top teams have over us at the minute that is the hardest thing to get.
“Our attack is coming, as we saw last week albeit against a slightly weakened side. I think defence wins you games and attack decides by how much. That is how we have built a lot of our season.”
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