Having been those that mattered most when he was growing up, inter-city derby matches remain as important as any to Rob Harley, even as Glasgow Warriors aim to hit new heights by reaching the knockout stages in the Champions Cup and the Pro14 in the same season for the first time.
The versatile forward who has spent eight years at the club is homing in on becoming the first man to make 200 appearances for the club, joining them at a time when the 1872 Challenge Cup was the only trophy they had a realistic chance of winning.
Since then they have become regulars in the Pro14 play-offs and while they have previously struggled in Europe, making the knockout stages just once, there is growing evidence that their current management is finding the way to unlock their obvious potential, allowing them to contend on both fronts.
Harley certainly believes that is the case, but their meetings with Edinburgh still hold special meaning for the native Glaswegian.
“We’ve been lucky that we’ve got the quality in the squad where we’re challenging on two fronts now and we expect to challenge for every competition we’re in, but it’s probably the same for every team that has a massive derby like this, it’s the rivalry game that probably means most to you,” said the 28-year-old.
“When I was growing up this was the biggest game as a fan you’d come and watch, the 1872 Cup and I think it’s still that way. It’s the one on the calendar that means the most coming from Glasgow. So, we’ll think about individual match-ups from a skills perspective and what we have to look for as a team, but on a personal level it’s more about the rivalry and trying to make a mark on that.”
This time last year Edinburgh’s victory in the first of the derbies was a major shock as they ended their neighbours’ 10 match winning streak in spite of playing most of the match with only 14 men.
After losing the return in Glasgow a week later, they went on to lift the 1872 Cup in the decider towards the end of the season, but Harley does not believe that the introduction of a third match as part of the new Pro14 Conference format has changed the dynamics significantly, while he does not see the way last season’s meetings went as having much bearing on how he and his team-mates will approach the forthcoming encounters.
“The third game will be later on, so playing back-to-back over Christmas it’s kind of the same, the approach is the same, it just means the fans will get the chance later on in the season to see us go at it again,” he observed.
“I think we’re motivated by the game and by the desire to keep our run going in the league because we’re playing with good form there. I don’t know how much (last year) plays into it. You’ve got different teams and a different season, so definitely there’s motivation from where we are in the league and the rivalry, but I think that’s the challenge we have in front of us.”
He can, however, see how Edinburgh might draw confidence from last year’s corresponding fixture ahead of Saturday’s meeting at the national stadium, saying: “I’m sure they’ll be talking about that and will be just as fired up as we are. That’s why it’s a massive game.”
There were shades of that meeting with Edinburgh when, last weekend, Glasgow found themselves struggling to contain an opposing team that ended the match down to just 14 men after having a man red carded.
They managed to hold Lyon at bay as they protected the lead they had built early in the match, however and Harley believes the way they battled it out in the hail and sleet at Scotstoun can prove to have been a valuable experience ahead of the derbies.
“I think we can probably expect the weather to be similar and the way we play in that and how we need to bring physicality carries over quite well from that,” he reckoned.
“We know we’ve got great attacking players in the side and that we can defend for 20 phases. It’s putting that out there, making sure we’re all connecting that and keeping going and getting quick ball and then we can hurt any team.”
“The way we started the game is exactly what we’d want. We played good territory and put pressure on them and when we got half breaks we were converting them, taking our chances. The negative is that when we got that lead we didn’t really advance from there.
“Credit to Lyon. They imposed their physicality on the game, they made the set-piece messy, but for us it’s probably lacking a bit of the ideas we had in the early stages, playing in the right areas, then using the ball in the right ways.
“It’s pretty much the same process week to week, trying to review what we’ve done, where we can improve and pick up for the next game. Our form has been pretty good this season, so hopefully that carries us through, but Edinburgh’s always a massive game for us, it is a little bit special and I think we’ll have that mentality this week that it takes a step up and a big performance from us.”
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