VICTORIOUS VERNON'S VIRTUOSO VIBE
Glasgow: 25 (15) Edinburgh: 12 (12)
Last year at the Firhill Arena it was James Eddie's performance that was the difference between these two sides. This year it was another back row tyro in the form of Richie Vernon. But while Eddie's sheer belligerence set the scene in 2008, Glasgow's win in 2009 was built on the go-forward that Vernon delivered in spades. It was an excellent display of No 8 ball carrying that put the wind up not only visiting Edinburgh, but also the Glasgow incumbent, Jonny Beattie. Beattie Jr's late efforts to do the same proved somewhat less successful than the new kid on the block. On a day that saw little in the way of memorable rugby, Vernon stood out and richly deserved his man of the match award.
And the Glasgow pack will be pretty chuffed with their shift. In most aspects of the game, they were on top. Their scrummage waxed strong, the Embra lineout disintegrated, and they bossed the breakdown, with Kelly Brown in particular getting away with murder. The Gunners' efforts at catching at restarts were utter garbage, but we are used to that. As a result, aside from a brief spell early in the second period where Embra secured quick ball, the capital side rarely looked at all threatening. The majority of the excellent 8,800 crowd went home happy, having witnessed a deserved Glasgow victory.
It was a momentous day for Dan Parks too. The Cardiff-bound playmaker's first penalty of the match nudged him over the 1,000 point mark for the Magners League. Not only is this an impressive feat in itself, it is also unique. Having said that, playing many of his matches on Firhill's pixie-sized pitch cannot have done him any harm. The restricted dimensions of the Maryhill playing surface suit his game very well, rewarding as they do accurate tactical kicking and place kicking from distance. Chris Paterson may be highly accurate, but he has a limited range. Yet even Mossy was knocking them over from halfway with no problem in the pre-match warm up.
It's genuinely difficult to come up with any incident of note in the first half. There was a bit of a dust up on 27 minutes, I suppose, and shortly afterwards both opensides were carded for some reason. But the match was really about territory and penalties. Glasgow dominated the former without really threatening, while both Parks and Paterson knocked over four penalties, the difference being Parks' dropped goal. This was secured after Godman knocked the ball into touch on the Embra 22, having noticed the game clock in the stand reading 40 minutes expired. Yet referee Paterson then played a substantial chunk of added time. He was quite right to do so, given that the unfortunate Chris Cusiter's three injury breaks had in themselves eaten up around five minutes while the clock conspicuously kept ticking.
Mr Paterson put in a fairly indifferent display with the whistle, one felt. Calling Stortoni for a knock on when a high ball had clearly bounced off the Argentine's chest was a corker, but there were howlers aplenty throughout for connoisseurs of the genre. It is some achievement for any whistler to make one wish that Nigel Owens was running the show, but this gentleman managed that with something to spare today. Come back George Clancy, or even Simon MacDowell, all is forgiven!
Embra will have been pleased to go into the break only three points down and their best period of the match followed soon after the restart. They were clearing the rucks aggressively, winning quick ball and asking questions of the enemy defence. With the pace of the game upped significantly, one felt that they were poised to hit back. But it was Glasgow who killed the game. Off attacking scrum ball, Vernon exploded up the blindside and powered over from distance for a good try, converted by Parks. And the Cardiff-bound playmaker added a penalty shortly afterwards to stretch the lead to 25-12.
There was a fair bit of huffing and puffing from Edinburgh after that, but Glasgow were content to defend and clear where necessary. The Gunners did have a number of opportunities, notably a series of drives on the Glasgow line and at least three attacking lineouts in promising positions. But poor handling or diabolical work at the lineout saw these chances thrown away. The match rather subsided to an end after that.
There is an element of Groundhog Day about these trips to Glasgow. Edinburgh know what's coming, yet seem unable to cope every time. They have the backs to put a big score on these guys. But they can only do that if the pack earn the right to go wide. They comprehensively failed to do that this afternoon. No-one in the Embra pack can honestly look back on this game and say they're pleased with their performance. A big improvement is required for the return next Saturday.
MAN OF THE MATCH: For a dominating display with ball in hand, RICHIE VERNON.
SCORERS:
Glasgow: Cardiff-bound playmaker Dan Parks 5P 1DG 1C, Vernon 1T
Edinburgh: Paterson 4P
TEAMS:
Glasgow: B Stortoni, DTH van der Merwe, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans, Cardiff-bound playmaker D Parks, C Cusiter, J Welsh, D Hall, M Low, A Kellock (captain), R Gray, K Brown, J Barclay, R Vernon.
Edinburgh: C Paterson (captain), J Houston, B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser, P Godman, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Attendance: 8,830
Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU)