Tim Visser announces return to form in 1872 Cup

Alan Solomons said Edinburgh were deserving of the win. Picture: SNS

Every dog has its day and yesterday proved to be Edinburgh’s thanks in large part to two tries by their giant Dutch winger Tim Visser.

“It’s been meagre this year so I will take what I can get,” said Visser of his two scores. “This is obviously a derby that has been hugely emotional over the years and I have never been able to win it (before) in my six years at the club, so that is memorable. You can see the emotion with everyone coming on to the pitch at the end.”

Visser has been overtaken in the rankings by several others in recent years, not helped by breaking his ankle, which meant he sat on the sidelines for six months. Tommy Seymour has become Scotland’s No 1 winger with good back-up from Sean Maitland with Dougie Fife the coming man, but those two strikes against one of the meanest defences in the Pro12 show the big Dutchman is coming back to his best if you listen to his coach.

“I thought we played very, very well tonight,” said Alan Solomons. “I thought particularly in those opening 40 minutes we had the edge on them in terms of field position and I thought our physicality was really really good.

“I think we were deserving of the win and I think that the scoreline was a fair reflection of the play. I think we were deserving of the win and I think we were deserving of the cup.

“The second try was a poacher’s try, the first one was a simple move where Greig (Tonks) did well to put him away.

“I think that had Dougie (Fife) not stumbled he would have scored in the opening minutes and he dropped the ball a little bit later so there are two tries that went a-begging.”

“I think Tim is starting to get there,” replied Solomans when asked if Visser was getting back to his best. “I think this will do a lot for his confidence. Scoring two tries in a big derby game will do a massive amount for his confidence.

“I thought it was an incredible team performance. It was fantastic. You consider that Glasgow are close to the top of the log and we had to beat them by more then ten points to win the trophy and we did it!”

If Solomons was exuberant with Edinburgh’s first 1872 Cup win since 2009 then his opposite number was suitably chastened by the experience of being the first Glasgow coach in six years to lose the cup. Glasgow haven’t quite hit the heights this season and its difficult to know exactly why. Gregor Townsend fingered a lack of urgency by his own men and some excellence by Edinburgh.

“They defended well, they deserved their victory and they took their chances well,” he said of Edinburgh. “They had the edge over us in a few key areas.”

Not least the set piece of scrum and lineout where Edinburgh’s dominance helped them to a rare inter-city victory.