Franco Smith: 'We know that they pose a tremendous challenge'

Franco Smith is adamant there is no chance of URC champions Glasgow underestimating Edinburgh in the first leg of their 1872 Cup showdown at Hampden on Sunday.

Warriors go into the match as favourites by virtue of finishing above their inter-city rivals in each of the past two seasons and being ahead of them in the current one. In addition, Glasgow have won each of the past two 1872 Cup contests.

However, head coach Smith is braced for a tough test against a side featuring several Scotland internationals, including former Warriors half-backs Ross Thompson and Ali Price.

“I think there’s a lot of talk about us being the favourites outside of the building, but we know that they pose a tremendous challenge,” he said.

“First of all, there’s a lot of individual battles that are always part of the derbies. The quality of their team, they’ve got a big pack of forwards, they are well organised.

“There’s a lot of improvement from last season regarding their set-piece, scrum and maul set-up. They’ve got quality in the back three; we know that. You can’t hand the ball to them. We know Ross and Ali Price really well. They’re a quality team all around.

“The fact that they’ve scored 100 points in the last three games, they can at any given day rip you apart. They’ve got a lot to prove to themselves, and I’m sure that they’re going to make it really, really hard for us, and they won’t give us our way. It’s going to be tough.”

Smith is mindful of the threat posed by Edinburgh wings Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham, who are now Scotland’s two highest scorers of all time.

“Look at their try-scoring record; they finish well,” said Smith. “Darcy, specifically lately, has been getting his hands on a lot of the ball off his wing. He gets involved quite a bit and asks defenders questions.

“We’re very much aware of them. They’re the top scorers for Edinburgh and for Scotland. They’re so far ahead in scoring points on the wings that we know that they pose a specific threat and can make a difference.”

Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt is mindful of the need to avoid giving away penalties against an “efficient” Glasgow side.

“They look after the ball really well,” he said. They’ve got a ball-in-hand approach that goes with some risk, but somehow, they’ve managed to reduce that risk.

“Their passing accuracy is good. They get good width on the ball. At the same time, they have a really good defence system.

“They win a lot of penalties, which gives them entries into the 22. They’re very efficient when they get into your 22. They’re a good all-round team and a difficult team to break down.

“We’d love to go into the game as favourites because that means that we’ve done well, but if you look at the form of the teams over the last year, I suppose you’ve got to look at Glasgow as favourites.

“We don’t mind the underdog status. As a team, we know we’ve got a lot of growth in us and a lot of learning to be done. We’ll take that (underdog tag) for this week, and hopefully, we’ll be going in as favourites next week.”