SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Big city rivalry reaches new heights


1872 Challenge Cup sweetens pot as Glasgow and Edinburgh vie to be top Scots dog in league

Iain Morrison
QUEEN Victoria was in the middle of her long reign when Edinburgh first played Glasgow at rugby on November 23 1872, exactly one week before the first football international took place between Scotland and England.
This fixture is old enough to take its place on The Antiques Roadshow and, after countless confrontations over the last 135 years, the two teams will meet once more on Friday afternoon at Murrayfield with the winner finishing 2007 as the top-placed Scottish team in the Magners League.

Derbies are usually close affairs and so it proved last year, with Glasgow getting the better of their old rivals on aggregate by 43-41. Both teams won their home ties.

Edinburgh triumphed thanks to a Hugo Southwell try and Glasgow won at Hughenden after Dan Parks ran up a personal tally of 24 points, which included two drop goals, three penalties and one try.

Glasgow will need to repeat last year's feat of winning the twin fixtures on aggregate if they are to wrestle the 1872 Challenge Cup out of Edinburgh's grasp.

In line with the modern trend, the winner will be awarded some silverware – in this case an ageing cup has been rescued from the back of a Murrayfield cupboard and dusted off especially for the occasion. The event was resurrected, sponsored by an estate agents, with the creation of the fledgling pro teams in the late 1990s, but has not been contested since Edinburgh took the silverware in 1998/9.

Friday's encounter will be a good test for both sides. Glasgow have not won in Edinburgh since way back in 2000 when the Welsh/Scottish League was active. Roland Reid featured in the Warriors' back row that day but the big South African may make an appearance for the opposition this time round. The score that day was 33-26 and a bumper crowd, desperate to escape The Sound of Music for the umpteenth time, will settle for just such a close-fought contest on Friday evening. If, as expected, it is a tight affair, the match will probably be settled by a few key battles within the war, the most important of which are as follows:

ROSS RENNIE v JOHN BARCLAY

This is one for the purists. Two out-and-out "fetchers" also happen to be two of the brightest young stars in the Scottish game.

It seems strange to say so, but at 21 years of age Barclay has experience on his side while Rennie has the fearlessness of youth. The younger man is some sort of human dynamo with immense arm and leg strength thanks to a youth spent skiing to a very high standard.

Rennie tackles low around the ankles because he is a small man in a land of giants. Barclay goes higher and keeps to his feet more often, which gives him an advantage when it comes to turning over the ball at the breakdown. Scotland were bested in this area at the recent Rugby World Cup and if the Glasgow man excels at the breakdown on Friday his reward may be the Scotland No.7 shirt when France visit in February.

PHIL GODMAN v DAN PARKS

It may be simplistic to call this battle as the passer against the kicker, but there is more than a little truth in that all the same. Neither man makes a speciality of breaking the defensive line, although Parks does snaffle more than a few interceptions. The Australian-born Scotland international remains one of the best in the business when it comes to leathering the ball, while Godman's kicking from hand has improved but only because it couldn't get any worse.

Glasgow will probably play a structured game, relying on Parks' boot and trusting to their line-out. In contrast, Godman will want to set a high tempo to the match and hope that the game breaks up, as Edinburgh feel that they have an edge in penetration in the back line. Godman mixes up his attacking options better than Parks and he will need to inspire his outside backs to their best form if Edinburgh are to win this game.

ALLAN JACOBSEN v MORAY LOW

Allan "Chunky" Jacobsen has evidently decided not to waste all the conditioning work he did for the World Cup and East Lothian's finest is in the form of his life. Did Edinburgh really march that Toulouse scrum backwards and did they hold out four consecutive Leinster scrums on their own five metre line? Jacobsen could have earned 50 caps by now with this sort of standard.

He will have his hands full next Friday, though, when attempting to pull rank on Scotland's brightest prop prospect for a decade or so.

At 23 years old, Low is just one more reason to be optimistic about the future of Scottish rugby as he won't hit his prime for another five years at least and he already holds his own. Low is only ever troubled when the opposition prop bores in at an angle, so expect Jacobsen to test the referee's vigilance early on.

ANDY ROBINSON v SEAN LINEEN

Robinson looks a lot happier these days than he did when coaching England, but then again everything in life is relative.

Both men have their teams playing with enormous pride and defending their line like Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Both teams come in on the back of recent European success with Glasgow still in the hunt for a quarter-final place. But for once the Warriors boast the bigger wage bill and they have long thrived on their underdog status.

Lineen also has to paper over the cracks in a back line that has been operating without a recognised outside centre, long seen as a necessity in most other sides.

Graham Morrison looked the part for the five minutes of action he got against Biarritz in France and, with Andy Henderson struggling to be fit, one of the forgotten men of Scottish rugby has every chance of recapturing the form that won him six international caps.

This article was posted on 23-Dec-2007, 09:01 by Hugh Barrow.