Cockerill: 'It's not a fluke when we beat Glasgow... we could have easily beat them last week'

Richard Cockerill praised the character of his under-pressure Edinburgh troops after seeing them level up their 1872 Cup series with Glasgow.

The Englishman warned his team they would be defending the pride of the capital at Murrayfield after allowing Warriors to snatch a Scotstoun victory last week.

But his team stood up to that challenge as they celebrated coming out on top of a 29-19 Guinness PRO14 thriller.

Scotland wing Darcy Graham was the hero with a sensational double scored either side of Henry Pyrgos’ touchdown and a late penalty try.

Big Bill Mata with a Christmas contender for offload of the @PRO14Official season during a thriller in the #1872Cup pic.twitter.com/V19mTMh1kU

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 28, 2019

The three-game series will now be decided back at Murrayfield in May but the bonus-point win will also come in handy as Edinburgh chase a place in the PRO14 play-offs.

Cockerill said: “Coming into the game we were under pressure to perform.

“For an Edinburgh team this is something we’ve stumbled with. When we’re under pressure we don’t cope with that pressure very well.

“At times I thought we were average tonight but at others we were outstanding.

“Glasgow are a quality team, they really are. We want to be thought of as that quality of team.

“It’s not a fluke when we beat Glasgow. We’re a good team and we could have easily beat Glasgow last week.

“Tonight was a see-saw game. I’m delighted with the win, I thought the players showed huge character across the board to take maximum points, which is huge for us.

Darcy Graham scored a sensational double as @EdinburghRugby triumphed in a Murrayfield thriller to square up their 1872 Cup series at one win apiece with @GlasgowWarriors https://t.co/Qw9dzdcS0N

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 28, 2019

“The way the conference is panning out, these tight wins are going to be huge for us.”

Glasgow fell behind midway through the first period to Graham’s opener but hit back through Huw Jones and twice led after the break as Scott Cummings and George Horne crossed over.

But they could not hold on and Warriors coach Dave Rennie admitted his team were undone by a more ruthless opponent.

He said: “It was an arm-wrestle for a big chunk of it.

“We got our nose in front a couple of times in the second half but to Edinburgh’s credit, they kept coming back and I thought they played really well.

“They were pretty clinical, a couple of their tries came from us on possession turnovers so we’ve got to give them credit.”