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Edinburgh beat Glasgow to 1872 Cup glory and Champions Cup spot

By PA
Edinburgh's Pierre Schoeman and Hamish Watson celebrate following the United Rugby Championship match at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh. Picture date: Saturday May 21, 2022. (Photo by Robert Perry/PA Images via Getty Images)

Edinburgh booked their place in next season’s Heineken Champions Cup and reclaimed the 1872 Cup by overcoming a 13-point first-leg deficit with a well-deserved 28-11 win over Glasgow at Murrayfield.

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The result means Warriors will play in the Challenge Cup – Europe’s second-tier competition – next year and travel to Leinster in the United Rugby Championship play-offs.

Edinburgh’s place at Europe’s top table came courtesy of them topping the URC’s Scottish/Italian Shield, finishing with a four-point cushion over Glasgow.

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With so much at stake, it is not surprising that it was a cagey encounter to start with, and scoring in the first quarter was restricted to a single Emiliano Boffelli penalty following a Warriors offside.

Glasgow squared it on 21 minutes, with Ross Thompson kicking the points following an Edinburgh offside, but the home side were beginning to dominate territory and possession.

Edinburgh Rugby v Glasgow Warriors - United Rugby Championship - Murrayfield Stadium
Edinburgh’s Magnus Bradbury (left) and Edinburgh’s Damien Hoyland celebrate following the United Rugby Championship match at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh. Picture date: Saturday May 21, 2022. (Photo by Robert Perry/PA Images via Getty Images)

Darcy Graham almost found a way through and when he was hauled down the quick recycle gave Blair Kinghorn the opportunity to spin out of a Sam Johnson tackle and stretch over the line.

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Boffelli added the conversion to make 10-3 with just over half an hour played.

Thompson narrowed the gap to four points just before the break when Luke Crosbie was penalised for playing the ball on the deck.

But that score was immediately cancelled out by Boffelli when Glasgow captain Ryan Wilson gave away an obstruction penalty at the restart.

Edinburgh flew out of the blocks at the start of the second half with a barn-storming run by Crosbie up the left touchline, and the capital side soon scored their second try off a well-executed set-piece move.

Edinburgh Rugby v Glasgow Warriors - United Rugby Championship - Murrayfield Stadium
Edinburgh’s Damien Hoyland celebrates scoring their side’s third try of the game during the United Rugby Championship match at Murrayfield Stadium (Photo by Robert Perry/PA Images via Getty Images)
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Graham and Chris Dean played crucial roles in opening the gap for Magnus Bradbury to rumble over.

Glasgow were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Rob Harley was sin-binned for trying to slap the ball out of Henry Pyrgos’ hands at the base of a ruck.

Then a Richie Gray offside allowed Boffelli to nudge Edinburgh 15 points ahead.

Crucially, this gave the home side an aggregate lead in the 1872 Cup contest.

The game opened up with 20 minutes to go and, after Dean and Graham had made big yards, the hosts got try number three through Damien Hoyland.

But Warriors did not go down without a fight, and Ollie Smith scored a stunning try from an inch-perfect Domingo Miotti cross-kick.

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Tom 58 minutes ago
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That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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