Edinburgh had won the 1872 Challenge Cup in two of the previous seasons, but their latest success had a different feel to it as they lifted the trophy in Saturday’s decider.
Admittedly they have been the home team at BT Murrayfield in two of these three matches, but given that Glasgow Warriors have regularly had more men in Scotland squads in recent seasons, playing there can hardly be seen as representing a significant advantage for the men from the capital.
Indeed as one of the senior figures in the Glastow squad, acknowledge afterwards it was far more important that he and his colleagues take on board what had happened, rather than scramble for excuses.
“It hurts us a lot,” said Rob Harley , the Glasgow forward. “The cup’s massive for us and for Scottish rugby and we thought we had a good chance of coming and retaining it this year, but fair play to Edinburgh, they’ve fronted up and won some key battles and they beat us to it today, so they deserve it,” he said.
The contrasting styles of the two teams was in evidence, but once again Edinburgh’s more prosaic approach prevailed and Harley, who has played for Glasgow more often than any other player, so can provide better perspective than most, acknowledged that he and his more-celebrated colleagues were given a great deal to think about as they look to find another level. Just looking at what they’ve done, they’re an excellent defensive side and they play hard-nosed, tough rugby,” he said of Edinburgh.
“We had our chances today. We finished with a maul five metres out and credit to Edinburgh, they fronted up when the game was on the line and proved that they had the heart and the character to be better than us when it came down to it.”
He recognised that in terms of the bigger picture it was good for
the domestic game and the national team, but that was obviously of no consolation.
“It’s probably good for the fans that it’s two teams going at each other, being very competitive. I guess for Scottish rugby it’s good to have two teams in the play-offs, but it’s disappointing for us not to be taking the cup home to Glasgow,” he said.
“We’ll be trying to take some lessons. Edinburgh defended better than us today, they came up with good line speed, put good double tackles in, stopped us getting [over the] gain-line, they forced turnovers from us and in their attack they showed good patience and good physicality.
“So those are things we’ll be looking at, we’ll be learning from. We’ve got a couple of weeks now to make sure that we’re absorbing those lessons and in a semi-final showing everything we’ve learned.
While the Warriors form has fallen away badly since they qualified early for the Pro14 play-offs, winning just three of their last eight matches in the competition, as opposed to 12 of their first 13, he stopped short, however, of accepting that they have suffered a disastrous loss of momentum at this crucial stage of the season, preferring to view the timing of this latest defeat as opportune.
“We’re not going to look at it like that, we’re going to look at it and see that Edinburgh have beaten us in a few key areas today, but it’s better for us to have that this week and get a chance to correct it going forward, better to make those mistakes and get taught that lesson here rather than when we have the semi-final,” Harley reckoned.
“That’s what we’ll move onto and we’ve got that chance to go on and rectify it in a semi. So, we’re going to take that time, learn that lesson and hopefully put up a better performance.”
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