'Back at home, mate, we'll get them': Edinburgh take their Christmas medicine and plan revenge mission against Glasgow Warriors

Edinburgh fly-half Charlie Savala and his team-mates found it hard to break past their Glasgow Warriors counterparts.

The first leg of the 1872 Cup, which also doubles up as a URC match, went the way of Warriors after a physical encounter last Friday night. Both teams crossed the whitewash once via Glasgow’s Jack Dempsey and Edinburgh’s Connor Boyle, but the hosts were more ruthless with their penalties as George Horne and Tom Jordan put in a flawless display in contrast to Emiliano Boffelli’s two missed efforts for the visitors. A packed Scotstoun hailed Glasgow’s victory over their arch rivals but Edinburgh fly-half Charlie Savala believes the outcome will be different when the two teams meet again this Friday.

"It was a weird game to be part of,” Savala reflected. “It was one of those ones when we didn't really land a punch until 60, 65 minutes. We wanted to stay in the fight from the start. I think there were a few crucial moments that we will look back on and think, 'we could have won the game', but we take a lot of positives going through to next week.

"We sort of wanted to manage the territory. The territory battle is massive. This time last year when we played them we dominated that and that's the reason we won the game. We tried to manage territory quite well, but our breakdown was a key area. Glasgow were hotter than us and put us on the back foot.

"We think we should have won the game. We played the better rugby. As I said, there are key areas of our game we have to work on. We'll rest up over Christmas and be right at it. When we are on top of them, we've got to stay on top of them. Our breakdown's key, stacking those quick rucks, and next week that'll be key for us.

"Back at home, mate, we'll always put on a performance. We'll take our medicine, our learnings, there will be things we look back on and work on. We take our medicine and we'll get them next week.”

Savala, a 22-year-old Australian who joined Edinburgh last year, was entrusted with the No 10 duties ahead of Jaco van der Walt after Blair Kinghorn was ruled out by injury. It is unclear whether the Scotland stand-off will be fit for the return match against Glasgow and after switching codes from rugby league to union and settling down in the capital, Savala feels more and more confident in his game.

“I've really found my feet,” said the Sydney-born play-maker. I'm really comfortable playing fly-half. I'm growing week on week. I've got a lot of confidence with the boys around me. Playing off good ball is what you always want as a fly-half. I feel like our forward pack is very strong and that allows us to play off the front foot most of the time.

When asked what he has improved on the most, Savala responded: “Mike [Blair, head coach] touched on it during the week, but it's just sensing that momentum shift when we are looking to play, when we are looking to transfer the pressure. My attacking mindset is great but there are times that we look to manage the game, look to transfer pressure, so that's an area of my game I've been working on.”