Rugby: Sweet fixture turns sour for Moffat's men

Published on Monday 27 December 2010 12:30

IN the build-up to the first leg of the annual double-header with Glasgow an Edinburgh Rugby player compared the team's specially designed strip-of-many-colours to a packet of Opal Fruits. Wrong.

Opal Fruits leave a pleasant taste whereas Edinburgh's performance in a 30-18 defeat by Glasgow at Firhill left a sensation equivalent to an oral rinse using soap powder.

For the first time in 14 matches this season Edinburgh failed to score a try but would that is where woes begin and end.

Alas, it is now over 240 minutes since Edinburgh actually managed a touchdown in meetings with their supposed arch-rivals (all lost) but again let's keep things in perspective.

For 61 minutes the boot of David Blair kept Edinburgh in touch to the extent that the stand off went within one of equalling Chris Paterson's six-year-old record of seven penalties in a league fixture but that was the merest of sub-plots in the greater of scheme of things.

And the bigger picture? Glasgow came from 13-18 behind in the final 19 minutes which was bad enough but it could have been so, so different and that is what must have really stung travelling supporters in a crowd of 7062 as they journeyed back along a foggy and frozen M8.

Regrettably, though, Edinburgh's management stubbornly refused to send on any substitutes other than the necessary - and temporary - alteration at hooker when Ross Ford was sin-binned.

Here again, cue more self-inflicted damage as stand-in Andy Kelly's first act was to throw squint at a line-out contributing to the platform from which Glasgow staged their final, all-conquering, push.

Hail patient and aggressive Glasgow; hang heads pathetic and abject Edinburgh whose ill-timing was summed up by the dismissal of Scott Macleod in almost the final play (opponent Chris Fusaro walked too) and for students of the bizarre what could have been more absurd than waiting until the 79th minute to get het up? As for the bench controller's strategical gaffe that was surely the biggest sub fiasco since HMS Astute ran aground off Skye with, sitting on Edinburgh's sideline, Simon Webster who, even restricted to cameo appearances in each of the past two games, had managed to claim tries.

Alongside Webster, too, sat Nick De Luca who has shown in the past to have a winning knack against Glasgow and maybe James King could have played a trump card in terms of being a little-known quantity given a chance. Come to think of it, in the 23-man Edinburgh squad there were ten full caps to Glasgow's 11 yet still the hosts managed to win looking over their shoulder.Aside from the subbing snubs did Edinburgh employ the wrong approach overall? The question is relevant when territorial gains seemed all-important almost to the exclusion of points and to the extent Edinburgh forgot about playing rugby apart from one slicing crossfield break from Ben Cairns which at least was well supported. Get it down into Glasgow's half and try to force a mistake seemed to be the mantra.

What other conclusion could there be when, with 15 minutes gone and Edinburgh enjoying a 6-0 lead against a thoroughly rattled Glasgow side, Tim Visser, not the league's most-feared try machine for nothing, innocuously turned a pass infield to David Blair rather than have a go At least Blair was 100 per cent with his place kicking but on other occasions vital touches were missed although even that pales when set aside the fact that Edinburgh's scrummage somehow contrived to be wheeled by a seven man Glasgow pack who had lost Richie Gray to the sin-bin.

So much to do, so little time with the return Magners League fixture which is also part of the Greaves Sports 1872 Cup series due at Murrayfield on Sunday. If Cairns continues to set himself apart by looking for gaps and Ross Rennie, Roddy Grant and Lee Jones in particular show the same commitment then Capital pride might just be restored. Certainly coach Rob Moffat isn't panicking although this inherently decent fellow kept his hand firmly in his pocket as opposed to raising it to acknowledge the substitution card was underplayed.

In fact, Moffat defended the decision to withhold subs, saying: "It was the way the game went. I didn't think we needed them. I was looking closely at our guys; I didn't think I needed to (field subs that might have turned a losing cause around). We didn't lose because we tired."

Why did Edinburgh lose in the coach's view then? "We didn't nail the game when we needed to," he explained. "When you are on top you have to put a team away and we didn't do that. Next week will be a completely different game and it is up to us to turn the screw."

Glasgow counterpart Sean Lineen was magnanimous, saying: "Edinburgh's defence made it really difficult for us."

Of course, Lineen could afford to be so generous especially as he had just helped launch flanker Robert Harley into the stratosphere of Scottish Rugby. Just 20 years old and standing 6ft 5in and 16st 9lb Harley was immense.

After David Blair had landed two early penalties which saw Ruaridh Jackson kick one in reply it was Harley who collected a re-start then broke two tackles to send DTH van der Merwe roaring up the touchline with the Edinburgh cover nowhere.

Jackson's conversion put Glasgow ahead until Blair slotted another two penalties then started the second half with his fifth in total. Even when Jackson made it 13-15 Blair again had Edinburgh in the driving seat with an award which came as Gray headed for the sin-bin.

Instead of capitalising, helped by Scott Macleod pirating line-out possession - if the planned appeal over his red card for fighting fails that will be a significant loss this weekend - Edinburgh folded and after Ross Ford's binning for a technical offence led to another Jackson penalty there looked to be only one outcome.

A mis-move brought plenty takers in Edinburgh's defence allowing Hefin O'Hare to jink over and any hopes of an away losing bonus disappeared when Max Evans was granted the freedom of Firhill to romp in.

Both conversions rubbed salt into Edinburgh wounds which only left the late slugfest which Edinburgh coach Moffat claimed to have seen but would not be drawn on.

As the dust settled humour surfaced as the public address system blasted out Cheryl Cole's "Fight for this love".

Scorers: Glasgow: Tries: Van der Merwe, O'Hare, Evans. Conversions: Jackson (3). Penalties: Jackson (3). Edinburgh: Penalties: Blair (6)

Glasgow: Stortoni, O'Hare (Aramburu, 74) Evans, Morrison (Murchie, 12), Van der Merwe, Jackson, Gregor (Pyrgos, 78, Welsh (Grant, 58), Thomson (Hall, 56), Low (Tkachuk, 76), Gray, (Muldowney, 61) Kellock (c), Harley, Vernon, Barclay (Fusaro, 76).

Edinburgh: Thompson, Jones, Cairns, Houston, Visser, D Blair, Laidlaw, Jacobsen, Ford, Cross, MacLeod, McKenzie, Newlands (Kelly,66 - 76) Grant (c), Rennie. Subs: Kelly, Traynor, Young, S Turnbull, McInally, King, De Luca, Webster.