Glasgow Warriors braced for an Edinburgh onslaught in 1872 Cup second leg at BT Murrayfield

Franco Smith is braced for an Edinburgh onslaught this evening as they try to overturn a 16-10 first-leg defeat in the second installment of the 1872 Cup.

Ali Price, centre, is back in the Glasgow Warriors starting side for the second leg against Edinburgh. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The Glasgow Warriors coach is seeking a fifth consecutive win and has stuck largely with the same players for the match at Murrayfield. Smith has moved away from his recent policy of wholesale changes and selected the same pack that did so well at Scotstoun last Friday.

There are two alterations to the backline, with Ali Price starting at scrum-half in place of the benched George Horne, and Ollie Smith replacing Josh McKay at full-back.

Edinburgh, by contrast, have made seven changes, including the return of their Scotland quartet Blair Kinghorn, Mark Bennett, Sam Skinner and Luke Crosbie.

“They have made a lot of changes and I think they expect a lot from the players they put out,” said Smith. “Obviously they are favourites for this one because it is at home and they’ve got a lot of good players coming in. It is basically a must win game for them this week. They would like to put one not just on us but it is important in the URC for them as well.

“I definitely think they will come out firing. Their pack will be really determined at the breakdown to slow our game down and turn us over there. With one or two changes in the backs and Blair Kinghorn being back, they're going to be more comfortable with him taking it to width. We expect them to throw the kitchen sink at us. At home, with a lot of fresh guys coming in, I'm sure the must-win feeling will give them that extra motivation.”

History favours the home team in this fixture. You have to go back to December 2016 for the last time Glasgow won an 1872 Cup match at Murrayfield, although they did beat Edinburgh at the national stadium in a non-1872 Cup match in August 2020 in the second game back from Covid and again in the Rainbow Cup in May 2021.

Glasgow can also take heart from winning at Murrayfield as recently as December 16 when they defeated Perpignan in a Challenge Cup which was switched to the capital because Scotstoun was frozen.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith at a rainy Scotstoun Stadium after the first leg win over Edinburgh. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Both teams like to play running rugby but the wind and rain made that difficult in the first leg last week. The forecast is for rain through the day on Friday and the wind is expected to get up in the evening so conditions are likely to be tricky again but Smith is confident his team have found different ways to win.

“I think we’ve now proven against Bath and also against Edinburgh last week that we have various ways we can play,” said Smith. “But I also felt like we didn’t play to our strengths at times last week. We couldn’t really do it because of the weather.

‘Our mentality is not focused on the fact we are playing Edinburgh. We have our own standards and we want to get better all the time. We want to be real competitors in this league. To do that, we still need to improve a lot.”