Glasgow 25 Edinburgh 20: Too little, too late for Edinburgh

EDINBURGH drew first blood in their inter-city rugby clash with Glasgow at Firhill today but Geoff Cross's 11th minute try proved to be a false dawn so far as a Celtic League win was concerned.

True, a 20 - 25 defeat also featurinng a last gasp Ben Cairns try did give Edinburgh the David Lloyd 1872 Trophy on a 59-31 aggregate over the two legs of the fixture.

But that was still scant consolation to a side who struggled to bring width to their play so that a potentially match-winning back three had to operate off short rations.

Phil Godman, at stand off, did maintain recent fine kicking form but most of Edinburgh's successes on a day of disappointment lay up front, full back Hugo Southwell another notable exception.

Besides Cross, who picked up from a ruck and bolted 15 metres to score under the posts, there were strong displays at second row from Jim Hamilton and also hard-hitting flanker, Scott Newlands.

Entering the new year it looks increasingly likely that Newlands could have a role to play in the Six Nations.

Several victims of shuddering Newlands tackles would surely testify to that while there were also some creative touches as Edinburgh battled to impose themseles before, inevitably, some loose passing would undo them.

Not for the first time in the fixture Glasgow relied heavily on the boot of Dan Parks in knocking over two penalties and a drop goal before converting when the outstnding Graeme Morrison slipped his marker to cross following neat interplay between Sam Pinder and Moray Low.

That try came after 43 minutes of a half which had seen Allan Jacobsen sin-binned and there was still time for Parks to add another penalty for a 19-7 interval advantage.

Two Parks' penalty misses ushered in the second period and when Godman slotted a couple at the other end the gap closed to 19-13,
Alas for Edinburgh Parks recovered his kicking touch with a penalty which was emulated by his replacement Ruaridh Jackson while adding to Capital discomfort was the sight of Alan MacDonald being assisted from the field late on.

In the closing moments Ben Cairns stepped inside the cover following a scrum and David Blair converted; it was too little, too late although it did earn Edinburgh a league bonus point.