Glasgow Warriors reaction: Danny Wilson heartened by much improved performance

A losing bonus point was all Glasgow had to show for it but there was plenty in the performance against Edinburgh that heartened Warriors coach Danny Wilson.

Glasgow took the game to Edinburgh for spells. Here Warriors centre Nick Grigg tries to get past Stuart McInally. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS

The visitors played most of the rugby at Murrayfield but couldn’t force their way over the line until it was too late, Lewis Bean’s try coming in the dying minutes of the 10-7 defeat.

But it was a big improvement on Glasgow’s last outing when they slumped to a 42-0 defeat at the hands of Exeter in the Champions Cup.

“We wanted to come here and play, fire some shots, and I thought we did that. We played a better brand of rugby than we had in the last two games and we certainly tested Edinburgh,” said Wilson.

“But tight games come down to tight situations and we came out on the wrong side of a couple of those situations, including again a lack of discipline. Soft penalties led to us being camped in the wrong areas of the pitch.

“In our last game against Exeter we didn’t fire any shots, but we did fire shots against Edinburgh. We played some rugby and that’s important to us. We got some dominance at the lineout and got dominated in the scrums, so those two things probably evened themselves out. But we certainly gave them a few penalties from scrums.

“It was more the penalties away from the scrum that were the frustration for me. We had 12 oustide the scrum and another four in it, which gave them a foothold.

“But there were some really good sets of defence, especially when we were camped on our own line and turned them over a few times.”

Wilson has an early chance of revenge when Warriors host Edinburgh on Friday. He hopes to have a few more players available as they complete return to play protocols following a Covid outbreak in the Glasgow camp.

“The Covid boys have to go 14 days from their last symptoms and then have a series of cardiovascular checks before they are allowed to train and play,” said Wilson.

“One or two might still be missing come Friday, but one, maybe two will be back. Hopefully that will help in certain situations where we struggled tonight.”

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