Edinburgh 63-15 Glasgow Warriors

Edinburgh took the win in the round one of the Celtic Challenge, after overcoming an early surge from Glasgow Warriors at Hive Stadium.

A chilly and dry day welcomed Glasgow Warriors in the capital for the clash kicking off the Celtic Challenge. Both Scottish rivals came ready to put on a brilliant game of rugby, with a total of a total of twelve tries, both team gave it their all.

The evening started with what it seemed Glasgow Warriors match, they looked strong, dominant and leading the match pace. Within the first ten minutes Sky Phimister was the first one to cross the Edinburgh try-line to open up the score, the Stirling County player able to break free from the Edinburgh defence and speed her way in between the home side’s posts. Lisa Martin added the conversion for a 7-0 Glasgow lead.

Just after the ten minute mark Lisa Martin added another three points to the Warriors score with a successful penalty kick. Edinburgh, however, seemed to start picking up the pace just after fifteen minutes of play and then managed to open their score by a try from Hannah Walker and a successful conversion from Lucy MacRae.

Hannah Walker once again found her way past the Warriors defence after a successful lineout from Edinburgh who allowed teammate, Hannah Ramsay to see the space on the other side of the pitch and an opening for Walker to break through. MacRae converted successfully.

Glasgow put all their efforts in the defence while trying to exploit the little mistakes Edinburgh gave away today but they seemed solid, on defence and attack, making it more difficult for the Warriors side.

Just before half time Edinburgh managed to extend their lead with three more tries from Aila Roland, Lucia Scott and Cieron Bell.

The hosts went into the half time with 24 points clear, Edinburgh 34-10 Glasgow Warriors.

After the break, both teams came back looking to continue the on field battle and put on a fight for their respective sides. Edinburgh was the team to open this second half with the second try from Cieron Bell. This time the home side was able to move the play up with quick passes, creating once again a space on the wing for Walker to break off and offload the pass to Bell.

Glasgow’s highlight through this game were the scrums, through the 80 minutes they dominated them every time and tried to take advantage the they happened. Forcing the error from the Edinburgh side post scrum and gaining the lineout, Glasgow managed to push their way into the hosts 22-meter line and managed to get Erinn Foley to cross the try-line as they neared the 60 minutes of game. Conversion hit on the posts this time, denying Warriors the extra two points.

The whole game but specially the last twenty minutes of the game were very physically demanding, and Edinburgh put the foot to the pedal to close the second half and match with tries from Shone Campbell, Hannah Walker, Talei Tawake and Faye Sutherland.

Full time at Hive Stadium was Edinburgh 63-15 Glasgow Warriors.

Post match thoughts from Glasgow’s Head Coach Lindsey Smith explain what she is taking from the game.

“First fifteen minutes caught Edinburgh off guard, we pulled on top of them a bit, which was good to see. But then probably just maybe got a little disconnected giving Edinburgh a chance to get onto the front foot.

Silly little things like not being focused, switching off at times get you punished. We have certain areas to work on but we need to remember this team came together three weeks ago. For our younger ones tonight will be a good learning experience, even if it doesn’t feel like that to them right now.”

Glasgow’s captain, Ailie Tucker also shared her thoughts and feelings post match.

“Defeat is a never a nice taste to take but, cant fault the effort of my players, coming together a short space of time and learn how to play off each other in a very intense environment.

Those first 20 minutes are a glance of what this squad can do. We need to continue doing that and it will lead us to put teams away.

Our scrums were definitely something to highlight for this game, we’ve worked a lot on them and that let us dominate a good number of them.

So again, loads to work on and take away from this game”