BACK-to-back wins for Glasgow Warriors over their nearest and dearest rivals will put a spring in the steps of Danny Wilson’s side as they make their way down the home straight of this marathon – and generally frustrating – season.
It will also, hopefully, quieten the naysayers who were prematurely calling for the coach’s head after the team’s heavy defeat to Benetton last month, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this Covid-interrupted campaign is no basis to reach such conclusions.
Wilson has now blooded several youngsters who have shown the potential to be key men next season and has recruited extensively. If they can finish the season with two more solid performances then they will head into the summer break feeling positive about the future.
Edinburgh got off to a flyer, working their way deep into enemy territory with some good continuity play, before Pierre Schoeman, Charlie Savala and Chris Dean combined to create that little bit of space that Viliame Mata is deadly in. The Fijian No.8 sucked in two defenders and then released Dean on his inside for the opening try with just three minutes on the clock.
But they let the visitors right back into it when Blair Kinghorn’s penalty to the corner was palmed back into play by Adam Hastings, and then two cheap penalties – Mata and Schoeman both flying into the side of rucks – created an opportunity for Ross Thompson to fire home three easy point from directly in front of the posts.
Kinghorn briefly restored the home team’s seven-point advantage with a successful shot at goal after Thomas Lambert was penalised for not rolling away after a tackle in the middle
of the park, but Warriors soon squared the match when Matt Fagerson – making his comeback after two months out with an ankle injury – athletically dived over the top of a ruck for his team’s opening try, Thompson had no problem converting.
Some elusive running from George Horne and Hastings had Warriors back on the offensive and they got their reward when Schoeman was sin-binned for tackling Nick Grigg off the ball, and George Turner powered over for his team’s second try straight from the close-range tap penalty. Thompson’s conversion put the visitors seven points ahead, but only briefly.
It was end to end stuff, and Edinburgh's pack power got them back in the strike zone, with Mike Willemse – just on the park for the concussed Stuart McInally – burrowing over to set up Kinghorn’s conversion which squared the contest at 17-all with just half-an-hour played.
Warriors pushed hard to have the last word in a helter-skelter first half. A slick set move saw Fagerson peel round the front of a five-metre line-out and he did well to wrestle his way over the line, but Mata managed to prevent the ball being ground. Then Thompson and Hastings combined to prise Edinburgh’s defence open, but the final pass went slightly behind Grigg leading to a knock-on.
Finally, the visitors got their reward on the stroke of half time when their pack created the platform for Hastings to hit the line hard and roll out of a tackle for a well-worked score.
Warriors were back on to the front foot straight from the restart and spent the first 12 minutes of the second half camped five yards from the Edinburgh line. Lambert – the 20-year-old academy player making his first start at this level – had Edinburgh in trouble with a bustling run, but he could not get the ball away to Grigg for the killer pass.
Rory Darge – another Warrior making his first start – thought he had gone over for the bonus point try but the TMO intervened to highlight that Turner had unintentionally obstructed Willemse so the score was chalked off.
But Warriors were playing an advantage for an earlier offside, so they were able to continue turning the screw, and it was scrum-half Horne who finally got that fourth try thanks to some lightning-fast hands at the base of a ruck on Edinburgh’s line.
Edinburgh needed a way back into the game and Kinghorn’s break and Charlie Shiel’s finish with just 10 minutes to go did pull it back to a seven-point game, but Edinburgh could not get any closer.
Scorers, Edinburgh – Tries: Dean, Willemse, Shiel. Cons: Kinghorn 3. Pen: Kinghorn.
Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Fagerson, Turner, Hastings, Horne. Cons: Thompson 4. Pen: Thompson.
Edinburgh: B Kinghorn, D Hoyland, J Johnstone, C Dean (G Taylor 56), E Sau; C Savala (J Blain 63)), H Pyrgos (C Shiel 56); P Schoeman (B Venter 63), S McInally (M Willemse 27), W Nel (L Atalifo 63), M Sykes (M Kunavula 67), J Hodgson, M Kunavula (C Boyle 60), L Crosbie (A Miller 25), V Mata.
Glasgow Warriors: A Hastings; K Steyn, N Grigg, S McDowall, R Tagive (L Jones 62); R Thompson, G Horne (J Dobie 64); T Lambert (D Evans 71), G Turner (G Stewart 67), E Pieretto (D Rae 71), R Harley, R Gray (K McDonald 54), R Wilson (T Gordon 64), R Darge, M Fagerson.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland).
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