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A long time coming


Edinburgh 15-22 Glasgow

Edinburgh (9) 15
Pens: Paterson (5)
Glasgow (14) 22
Tries: Van der Merwe, Stortoni Pens: Parks (3) DG: Parks

Parks was the main threat for Warriors at Murrayfield
Glasgow beat rivals Edinburgh to stay top of the Magners League and, at the same time, win the 1872 Cup.
Sean Lineen's men followed up on their 25-12 victory at Firhill last week with a dominant performance at Murrayfield.
The boot of Dan Parks was the Warriors' most potent weapon as he chipped ahead for DTH van der Merwe to score and for Bernardo Stortoni to catch for a try.
Parks' penalties kept Glasgow ahead and Edinburgh captain Chris Paterson kicked five penalties for the dejected hosts.
Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat was able to include Jim Hamilton in the team for the second leg of the 1872 Cup, after the Scotland lock had been out for four months with patella tendonitis.
Greig Laidlaw, himself a stand-in recently for Scotland cap Mike Blair, was replaced at scrum-half by rookie Ross Samson who was making his Edinburgh debut.
Kyle Traynor, flanker Alan MacDonald and winger Mark Robertson also came in, while Glasgow were unchanged for the second leg of the annual inter-city contest.
As expected, there were punishing exchanges in the opening minutes, with Glasgow's Al Kellock on the receiving end of a hefty challenge.
Parks, the Magners League's top points scorer, ensured the scoring immediately went in Glasgow's favour with a penalty and drop-goal following a line-out in the home 22.
Edinburgh were on the back foot but got on to the scoreboard in the ninth minute. Paterson followed up his own up-and-under to turn Stortoni in the tackle and kick the subsequent penalty.
Five minutes later Glasgow confirmed their early superiority with a slick, though unconverted, try.
The move began with a Max Evans break in centre-field and finished with Parks side footing the ball to the left corner where Canadian Van der Merwe touched down.
Paterson did his best to keep Edinburgh in touch but almost every time the home side scored to get within touching distance of Glasgow they would concede and Parks would restore the Warriors' lead.
Yet Paterson looked like Edinburgh's most likely source of points and Moffat's team has now gone four matches without scoring a try.
In the second quarter two Glasgow players ended in the sin bin. First it was van der Merwe, who interfered with airborne Mark Robertson, in the 21st minute.
Then two minutes from the break Kellock was punished for tackling Samson early at the scrum base.
During the first sin-bin period Paterson and Parks exchanged penalties and into stoppage-time Paterson added another to cut Glasgow's half-time lead to 14-9, after some heroic defence had kept the home side at bay.
Kellock had just returned when Glasgow scored their second unconverted try.
Richie Vernon forced a five-metre scrum and from the pressure, Parks produced a lovely kick to the left for the unmarked Stortoni to catch and touch down.
Glasgow continued to dominate, but Paterson's fourth penalty in the 65th minute kept Edinburgh in bonus-point territory.
That seemed to have gone when Parks added his third penalty two minutes later but Paterson secured that consolation for Edinburgh with the last kick of the game.
The Warriors lead the Magners League by two points from the Ospreys ahead of their trip to face third-placed Leinster, whose game at Connacht was postponed, on Friday.

This article was originally posted on 2-Jan-2010, 19:01 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 2-Jan-2010, 19:03.






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