Franco Smith pays Edinburgh 'huge compliment' after win

Franco Smith praised his Glasgow players for sticking to their task after they ground down Edinburgh to claim a bonus-point 24-12 victory in the first leg of the 1872 Cup at Hampden.

In front of a crowd of 21,093 at Scotland’s national football stadium, the inter-city rivals were separated by just two points at the break as Warriors led 7-5 after tries from Glasgow’s Matt Fagerson and Edinburgh’s Dylan Richardson.

Warriors seized command of the scoreboard in the third quarter when forwards Rory Darge and Gregor Hiddleston crossed the line within four minutes of each other.

Edinburgh got themselves back to within seven points when Grant Gilchrist scored in the 72nd minute, but substitute Seb Stephen drove over in the closing stages to ensure Glasgow will be protecting a 12-point lead in next Saturday’s second leg at Murrayfield.

“I’m obviously very grateful for the win,” said Warriors head coach Smith. “Edinburgh applied themselves very well, they were very physical and didn’t miss a tackle. They made 253 tackles I think, 156 before half-time, which was a big number.

“That was a huge compliment to their heart. They can be proud of the way they stopped us.

“We had 18 entries into the 22 and it was arguably our lowest conversion rate.

“But if you knock on the door long enough, somewhere it needs to open. I’m proud that the boys stuck to task. They didn’t get discouraged by the good effort and defence from Edinburgh.”

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt admitted his side did not get their attack firing.

“We defended really well,” he said. “There was a lot of fight in our defence to keep them out in the first half. We only got into their 22 once and managed to score a try.

“We started the second half better, had opportunities in the 22, but weren’t accurate enough there. Credit to Glasgow on how they defended in the 22, that’s an area that we need to improve on for next week.

“If I look at the defensive effort and the physicality, I thought we were right up there with the fight that the guys showed, but you can’t win a game on that alone.

“You have to fire some shots from an attack point of view and it didn’t work out for us. Some of our set-piece was disrupted as well.

“I thought we contained them really well at times, but you need to score points too.

“I think we had a couple of opportunities in the second half where we could have got over. At 19-12, if we had have got possession there and been more clinical, it might have been a little bit different.”