{"id":644733,"date":"2025-12-20T19:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644733\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T19:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T19:02:33","slug":"5-takeaways-as-warriors-crumble-the-fortifications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644733\/","title":{"rendered":"5 takeaways as Warriors ‘crumble the fortifications’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following Glasgow Warriors\u2019 24-12 win over Edinburgh in the 1872 Cup, here are our five key takeaways from the URC clash.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The top line<\/p>\n

Glasgow Warriors have given their fans an early Christmas present, downing bitter rivals Edinburgh 24-12 in the opening 1872 Cup clash at Hampden Park.<\/p>\n

Franco Smith\u2019s side had the better of the early exchanges, but held just a two-point lead heading into the sheds as Matt Fagerson and Dylan Richardson swapped first-half tries, with an Adam Hastings conversion the difference between the teams.<\/p>\n

With the game firmly in the balance, you felt the next score would define the game. Step forward Glasgow, who hit with a quick-fire double through Rory Darge and Gregor Hiddleston.<\/p>\n

Edinburgh notched one back through Grant Gilchrist to make it a nervy ending, but it was to be short-lived as Seb Stephen crossed to give his side the all-important bonus-point win.<\/p>\n

Proper derby<\/p>\n

This was a real slobber-knocker, befitting the rivalry between the two sides.<\/p>\n

Everything seemed to be heightened. The contacts were that much more physical, with an extra bit of anger channelled into it. The passes had just that extra bit of fizz behind it. The individual battles were just that little bit more important.<\/p>\n

The scores also reflected that, with them all coming via forwards and in very traditional forward way too via pick-and-goes or from the base of a maul.<\/p>\n

The sheer brutality of the game was reflected in the stats. Six Edinburgh<\/a> players notched more than 20 tackles across the match, while six Glasgow players hit double-digits for carries.<\/p>\n

It was far from the fluid flair rugby we have seen in recent weeks, but that didn\u2019t take away from the spectacle. It was gladiatorial, it was abrasive, it was rugby at its grittiest.<\/p>\n

Stormers player ratings: A \u2018creative void\u2019 without Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu but \u2018Springbok-in-waiting\u2019 and Bomb Squad get the job done<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Castle conquered<\/p>\n

Glasgow were, for the most part, dominant in the first-half, posting\u00a072% territory and 67% possession, but only took a two-point lead into the break.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t through a lack of effort, however. Three times, it seemed Glasgow had breached Edinburgh Castle, only to be held up. Jack Dempsey found himself denied on two separate occasions, while Hiddleston was also stopped by a white jersey.<\/p>\n

The credit should certainly go to Edinburgh for this. It was a masterclass in swallowing red-zone pressure, where their aggressive defence right on the line forced the Warriors to pick and go slightly tighter to the ruck and therefore limit the chance of dotting the ball down.<\/p>\n

However, it would have infuriated the hosts no end, given they arguably deserved a much larger lead at the interval.<\/p>\n

But the fortifications would eventually crumble, with Darge and Hiddleston crossing the whitewash within mere minutes of each other.<\/p>\n

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Edinburgh did rally back in the final quarter, but in a poetic moment, Glasgow struck with another pick-and-go score through Stephen.<\/p>\n

Those second-half scores showed the change in the Warrirors between the two halves. While they all came through similar methods, they were all done differently to how they would have been done earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Darge and Stephen\u2019s scores came from more of a shifter pick-and-go, taking it just outside of Edinburgh\u2019s push out of second man, which in turn gave them that little bit of extra space to score.<\/p>\n

Hiddleston\u2019s try from the maul was also slightly different, with Glasgow setting up quicker and using the rolling momentum rather than allowing Edinburgh to get set.<\/p>\n

It was a very small shift, but it\u2019s a shift that eventually saw them raid the Castle.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Hitting their straps<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before this victory, Glasgow<\/a> were looking like drifting away from the title push, sitting sixth on 20 points, but they are now firmly back in the mix.<\/p>\n

While Munster are still to play this weekend, Glasgow have climbed up to third in the ladder on 25 points and are now just one point off second-placed Cardiff as well.<\/p>\n

This revival of their title push also comes with the Warriors on a run of six wins from their past seven games in all competitions, a run which includes victories over Toulouse and the Bulls as well.<\/p>\n

Glasgow have proved time and time again they are a real momentum team, notably on their run to their URC title in 2024, and it seems they are starting to hit their straps at the perfect time.<\/p>\n

They have given themselves a real boost in the title race and could very easily be one to watch moving forward.<\/p>\n

Test watch<\/p>\n

As you would expect, there were plenty of players who would have impressed their national team, particularly Gregor Townsend with a number of Scotland stars on display.<\/p>\n

Zander Fagerson\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Pierre Schoeman\u00a0<\/strong>put on a mouthwatering display of prop excellence today, both in the scrum and the loose, which will leave Townsend stepping into Christmas with a bit of extra glee.<\/p>\n

Back-rowers Dempsey, Darge, Magnus Bradbury <\/strong>and Dylan Richardson\u00a0<\/strong>all impressed as well, which will only fuel Six Nations selection calls, while\u00a0Gregor Brown\u00a0<\/strong>made a big impact off the bench.<\/p>\n

Kyle Steyn\u00a0<\/strong>also dominated his wing battle against Duhan van der Merwe, which will prick the ears of Townsend too.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Leinster player ratings: Rieko Ioane \u2018still finding his feet\u2019 despite first try as \u2018exceptional\u2019 bench rescues stale hosts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Glasgow Warriors\u2019 24-12 win over Edinburgh in the 1872 Cup, here are our five key takeaways from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,126,8979,4884,225,12,712,16,15,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-644733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-features","11":"tag-glasgow-warriors","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115753448039316885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}