Edinburgh suffer derby defeat

  • 17 May 2021

Edinburgh Rugby fell just short against Glasgow Warriors for the second time in as many weeks with the Scotstoun club grabbing a decisive 31-24 Rainbow Cup win at BT Murrayfield.

The scores were level after 40 minutes of end-to-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 69th-minute try set up a thrilling finish but Warriors held on to secure back-to-back derby wins.

Warriors had conceded 27 penalties the previous weekend despite winning 29-19 to regain the 1872 Cup and it took them less than a minute to get on the wrong side of the referee at BT Murrayfield.

Edinburgh made the most of their chance to get on the front foot. Inside three minutes, they worked the ball out to the right flank, Bill Mata shimmied inside and offloaded to Dean to cross.

Blair Kinghorn, making his 100th appearance for Edinburgh, and Ross Thompson traded penalties before the visitors claimed two tries in three minutes midway through the half.

Fagerson launched himself over a pile of bodies and stretched his arm to touch down before Thompson levelled the scores.

Warriors were soon in front with a temporary man advantage. Pierre Schoeman was shown a yellow card for hauling back Nick Grigg before Hastings could play him in after breaking forward with the help of a dummy.

The sacrifice proved in vain as Turner took a tap penalty and forced his way through a pack of bodies to cross.

Glasgow threatened again but Kyle Steyn could not finish off a promising break and the 14 men pulled themselves level just before the half-hour mark.

Willemse, who had just come on for Stuart McInally, drove over and Kinghorn continued the impressive kicking displays.

Warriors came close when Hastings made strides down the right but Grigg could not hold on to his pass and knocked on before Steyn touched down.

But Glasgow went ahead before the break with 43 minutes on the clock as Horne passed to Hastings near the line and the full-back rolled out of a tackle to touch down.

The visitors were on the front foot after the break. Rory Darge thought he had grabbed his first Glasgow try on his first start since moving from Edinburgh last month but Turner was penalised for blocking a tackle as he manhandled his team-mate over the line.

Warriors got the penalty for an earlier infringement and their pressure eventually paid off when scrum-half Horne dived underneath Edinburgh’s defence to touch down.

Warriors looked like they were managing the game well but Kinghorn broke away to set up Charlie Shiel to go over in the 69th minute and the full-back reduced the deficit to seven.

That was to be it however as Glasgow defended well in the closing stages to secure the win.

live commentary 7:35 PM Saturday 15 May 2021

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