Glasgow Warriors-Edinburgh reaction: Smith pleased with gameplan as Everitt laments indiscipline

The Warriors have the 1872 Cup advantage going into return leg at Murrayfield

Franco Smith, the Glasgow head coach, hailed a 23-man effort from his side as they beat Edinburgh 22-10 at Scotstoun to take a first leg advantage in the 1872 Cup and move to the top of the United Rugby Championship.

The home side managed the conditions better on a night when the rain never stopped, outscoring their age-old rivals by three tries to one, with Kyle Rowe, Johnny Matthews and Ally Miller touching down for Glasgow and WP Nel landing Edinburgh’s sole score. Smith, who was wearing a bright red Christmas jumper during the post-match press conference, said his team had followed the game-plan, taking advantage of Edinburgh being reduced to 14 men by Grant Gilchrist’s yellow card in the second half.

“The conditions were difficult,” said Smith. “We stuck to the process. Edinburgh were a big physical challenge tonight, but our processes took us through. The guys that came on did their job. I'm really proud of how the guys stepped up. We know Edinburgh are a fantastic side, and we don't expect less next week. They will want to redeem what happened tonight, but we'll enjoy Christmas first.”

Franco Smith guided Glasgow Warriors to victory over Edinburgh at Scotstoun.

Sean Everitt, the Edinburgh coach, was left to rue his side’s indiscipline as they conceded a slew of penalties in the second half and had Gilchrist sin-binned. Glasgow scored two tries while the Edinburgh captain was off the pitch. “The second half we were on top again and then came some individual lack of discipline and we conceded eight penalties in the last 24 minutes,” said Everitt. “If you concede eight penalties against a team that mauls really well in these conditions you are going to be up against it and the yellow card didn't help.

“Are there ways to rectify this? Yes, there is. We will look at it and deal with the individuals concerned. I thought we defended very well at times. We did not want them to get the ball to the edges and we prevented them from doing that at times and they did not get as many run metres than they usually do so there are positives we can take out of this game rather than deal with the negatives.”