A huge second-half performance from Glasgow turned round an eight-point deficit to establish an uncatchable 12-point lead with five minutes to go, which means the 1872 Cup heads back along the M8 for the next 12 months.
Although a late try from replacement hooker Paddy Harrison salvaged a losing-bonus point for the home team, that will provide scant consolation.
For Warriors, this was a statement performance. Their first Murrayfield win in this fixture since 2016 and five league points, which opens up four points of daylight between themselves and Edinburgh in the URC table.
The biblical winds and rain of the morning had subsided by kick-off time, and it wasn’t too cold, which was surely the key factor in this match – from the very start – being a much more open and entertaining affair than the first leg at Scotstoun seven days earlier.
Glasgow laid down an early marker when they earned a scrum penalty, which they kicked to the corner, and after a couple powerful bursts from Sione Tuipulotu and Richie Gray, the visitors worked through three more phases before Kyle Steyn stepped inside three weak Edinburgh tackles to score the opening points.
Tom Jordan fired home the conversion, but Edinburgh rallied, and when Harry Paterson – a late swap into the team in place of Wes Goosen for the second week running – snaffled possession from a Sebastian Cancelliere fumble, it launched a period of pressure which almost resulted in a try for Blair Kinghorn in the corner, but Tuipulotu’s last gasp tackle squeezed him into touch.
Edinburgh kept their foot on the accelerator with Sam Skinner charging down Ali Price’s clearance, and Jamie Ritchie muscling over to set up an easy Kinghorn conversion which squared the contest with just 11 minutes played.
The hosts grabbed the lead two minutes later when Viliame Mate powered up the middle of the park and when he was finally brought down by a fine Tom Jordan tackle, Glasgow full-back Ollie Smith entered the ruck from the side, and Kinghorn took the three points on offer.
All the momentum was with the capital outfit now, and a huge scrum near halfway shoved Warriors 10-yards backwards and off their own ball to earn a penalty, which was a huge moment in terms of psychology given that this was a big area of concern for Edinburgh in the previous 100 minutes of rugby between these two teams.
Edinburgh’s second try duly arrived on 26 minutes when Luke Crosbie burst from a line-out maul and rumbled over, with Kinghorn adding the tricky conversion from wide on the right.
But Warriors were not ready to raise the white flag and a powerful break up the middle by Tuipulotu, brushing off Tom Cruse and Mark Bennett, then bouncing Henry Pyrgos, swung momentum back his team’s way.
The visitors then squeezed a couple of penalties to set up a line-out five yards from Edinburgh’s line, where came a really smart piece of ingenuity with winger Steyn helping chuck centre Stafford McDowall up to win the ball at the front, and the peel at the front resulted in Matt Fagerson rumbling over.
Edinburgh had the last say of the first half when Kinghorn slotted his second penalty of the evening, earned through another dominant home scrum.
It was 10 minutes of cat and mouse at the start of the second half, until Warriors stand-off Jordan fended Mark Bennett to break the line and it took some excellent defence by Emilano Boffelli on his Argentinean countryman Cancelliere to stop a near certain try.
There was no stopping Glasgow the next time they attacked, with Richie Gray’s soft hands sending Sione Vailanu through a hole, Cancelliere darting up the right touchline, and Tom Jordan finishing off. Jordan converted himself to pull it back to a one-point game with just over 20 minutes to play.
Glasgow came again, and they snatched the lead with 13 minutes with a George Horne penalty from bang in front of the posts after several minutes of pressure on the Edinburgh line eventually led to an offside yellow cards for replacement second-row Marshall Sykes.
That was Horne’s first major involvement after coming off the bench to replace Ali Price, and it got even better for the scrum-half when he finished off a sweeping attack which featured a clever kick ahead by man-of-the-match Tuipulotu and an excellent pick up and pass inside from Steyn to Jordan, who provided the final pass.
Having shown their flashy side, Glasgow then piled more misery on Edinburgh with a gruelling maul squeezing another penalty, which Horne sent home to open-up a 12-point lead for the visitors, before Harrison’s late try closed the gap to seven.
