Richie Vernon scored a try for Glasgow to enable the home side to secure a win in the opening leg of the Greaves Sports 1872 Cup at Firhill. In reflection, it was an afternoon to forget for Edinburgh, who produced an off-key performance and were outmuscled by an abrasive Glasgow side.

Dan Parks scored five penalties, a conversion and a drop-goal to put Glasgow in the driving seat while Edinburgh captain Chris Paterson responded with four penalties.

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Heading into the match, Edinburgh’s mood was as bright as their fluorescent jerseys and pink socks, but that optimism was emphatically kicked into touch.

Abrasive at the breakdown and dominant at the line-out, Glasgow asserted themselves as the superior team for large periods of the game.

During the first half, the only sojourns Edinburgh managed into enemy territory quickly resulted in a penalty which was scored by Paterson, who only missed one kick all game.

Edinburgh came off second best, but the accuracy of Paterson’s boot kept the away side in the match until man-of-the-match Richie Vernon stepped up a gear to score a try mid-way through the second half.

An array of uncharacteristic handling errors plagued Edinburgh’s performance and prevented the men in neon from generating any serious momentum.

A drop-goal attempt from Godman summed up Edinburgh’s afternoon at the office – inaccurate and wide of the mark.

Rest assured, the players will be pulling out all the stops the resolve the on-field problems which blighted their opening match in the Greaves Sports 1872 Cup.

A sizeable and vocal travelling army of Edinburgh fans made themselves heard in a 8,800 crowd at Firhill and their energy will hopefully be rewarded with an improved and more polished display from Edinburgh on home soil next weekend.

In terms of pluses which emerged from the game, David Callam made his first start for Edinburgh since September 2008 and seemed to be up to speed regarding the sheer physicality of the match.

His ball carrying skills were impressive and the best is still yet to come from the big back row forward who was sidelined for over a year with a hip injury.

Hooker Sean Crombie made his long awaited debut for Edinburgh when he replaced Ross Ford in the second half. The experience will have been immeasurably beneficial for the player now in his second season as a professional.

All in all, it was a painful and unproductive 80 minutes of rugby and being soundly beaten by your biggest rivals is a horrible experience. Collectively, the players acknowledge that this cannot happen again at Murrayfield, so expect a spirited response from your favourite team.

In a competitive clash, tempers started to fray and following an altercation, both John Barclay and Roddy Grant was yellow carded mid-way through the first half. Some poor decisions were punished and Parks struck another penalty before half-time to extend Glasgow’s advantage.

Before kick off, Edinburgh lost Alan MacDonald, who was withdrawn because of a rib injury. 

Glasgow: B Stortoni, DTH van der Merwe, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans, D Parks, C Cusiter, J Welsh, D Hall, M Low, A Kellock (captain), R Gray, K Brown, J Barclay, R Vernon.
Edinburgh: C Paterson (captain), J Houston, B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Replacements: Crombie (for Ford), Traynor (for Jacobsen), C Hamilton (for Turnbull), McKenzie (for Callam), Samson (for Laidlaw), Robertson (for De Luca), Thompson (for Paterson).