TWO late tries for Edinburgh scored by Nyle Godsmark and Jason Baggott – both created by midfield breaks from Dom Coetzer – swung this game on a six-pence, securing a narrow capital win at the end of a fiercely contested and entertaining Super6 pro-alignment clash at Millbrae.
This match was organised to provide players from Super6 with a chance to come together to play some representative rugby at the end of the recent Sprint Series, and while it was scrappy at times – as you would expect from a game between two teams who had only a week preparation together – both sides played with intent, skill and a freedom you don’t see during the grind of the regular season.
“You sometimes lose the specialness of these kinds of matches when you are in your bubble and it is competitive all the time,” reflected Stirling County head coach Ben Cairns, who was part of a trio of former Scotland centres overseeing the Glasgow team, alongside Pete Horne of Ayrshire Bulls and Graham Shiel of Boroughmuir Bears.
“I felt I found that again this week and I think the boys have as well, in terms of coming together and just enjoying playing the game of rugby.”
It was two tries apiece at half-time with Marcus Holden and Jerry Blyth-Lafferty touching down for Glasgow against scores by Wallace Nelson and Billy Wara of Edinburgh.
Glasgow then helped themselves to quickfire tries through Ruairidh Swan and Logan Trotter at the start of the second half, and it looked like the men from the west were going to be comfortable winners.
But Coetzer had other ideas, twice breaking through midfield to set up those tries which swung the game in his team’s favour.
“It’s annoying to lose it from 24-14 and feeling like we were in control, but with the changes both teams made during the final quarter, they got a bit of dominance in the set-piece, we struggled scrum and line-out wise, and the game flipped a bit,” added Cairns.
“I thought the boys played some really good rugby at times, and we definitely scored the best try of the game with Logan's score under the posts at the start of the second half.”
