Glasgow celebrated turnovers and points to make up for absence of fans

Fraser Brown says both teams tried to generate their own atmosphere at empty Murrayfield

Glasgow captain Fraser Brown shows his frustration during his side's defeat by Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS Group

For all that players knew what was coming with Saturday’s behind-closed-doors return of rugby, Glasgow captain Fraser Brown admitted the atmosphere, or complete lack of it, did take some getting used to at BT Murrayfield.

The Warriors were well beaten in the end, 30-15, in their first match under new head coach Danny Wilson against inter-city rivals who have gone from a bogey side, to having an “Indian sign” to now being dominant in the fixture.

“It was a little strange as you could certainly hear both your own players and the opposition a lot more,” said the Scotland hooker. “The strangest thing is just trying to generate your own atmosphere.

“You could see how both teams were doing that. Glasgow were celebrating when we got turnovers, when we scored points and celebrating those little victories within the game itself. The bench and the support staff have a big part to play as they need to generate that atmosphere and it is different but we need to deal with it. On Friday and whatever comes in October whether there’s a 
limited amount of fans or not, it’s something which we will deal with then.”

Brown lamented a final quarter lull which allowed Edinburgh to strangle the life out of the game, march on to the Pro14 semi-finals and lift the 1872 Cup for a third year in a row. “The first 60 minutes was fine, the last 20 minutes it was a no,” he said. “We were victims of our own demise, we didn’t adapt quickly enough at the breakdown.”

It will be back to the national stadium on Friday for a dead rubber but Brown is keen to get another chunk of gametime after so long out. “Everyone wants to play every game as we haven’t played in six months,” he said.

“We have new guys in and we have new systems and we want to try to make connections there as fast as possible. I’m not sure what kind of team we’ll put out on Friday and how we will attack that game, whether we’ll look to experiment and attack things.”

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