Magnus Bradbury try edges Edinburgh to victory over Glasgow
Magnus Bradbury’s try was enough to seal a 10-7 win for Edinburgh over Glasgow after a late surge of points at Murrayfield. The scoreboard remained blank until the 65th minute as a mixture of freezing conditions and sloppy mistakes resulted in both teams wasting a string of openings to strike.
Edinburgh fly-half Jaco Van Der Walt eventually nudged his side in front with a penalty before Bradbury’s try with 10 minutes left Glasgow with it all to do.
Warriors replacement Lewis Bean did cross over in the final moments but Edinburgh held on to win the first leg of the 1872 Cup double-header and four valuable Guinness PRO14 points.
The winning try capped off a memorable start to 2021 for the Bradbury family, coming just 24 hours after Magnus’ mother Dee – a former president of the Scottish Rugby Union – discovered she had been awarded a OBE in the Queen’s New Years honours.
Neither side had much to shout about amid a dire end to 2020.
Both Scottish sides had previously managed just two league wins all season and the first 40 minutes of the new year did little to suggest things will be getting any better in the months to come.
Edinburgh dominated the first quarter, camping out for large spells in the Warriors’ 22.
But with temperatures sitting sub-zero in the capital, the hosts froze when the big moments came and Danny Wilson’s defensive line was able to stand strong without being broken.
Having survived that onslaught, Glasgow should have taken the lead on the half-hour mark.
However, Brandon Thomson’s horror penalty miss straight in front of the posts summed up a woeful first period as both teams eventually trudged down the tunnel with the scoresheet blank.
Thompson’s jitters with the boot was perhaps the reason behind Ali Price’s decision to take a tap and go in front of the posts five minutes into the second half but another chance was spilled when Zander Fagerson dropped the ball a yard short of the line.
Glasgow had Richie Gray plucking everything out of the air at the line-out but even with that set-piece leg-up they found converting territory into points just as problematic as Edinburgh had before the break.
But when it came to the scrum, Richard Cockerill’s pack were firmly on top and it was thanks to the forwards that they got the penalty which saw Van Der Walt finally opening the scoring as the Scotland stand-off nailed a 40-yard penalty.
Glasgow still had time on their side but when Thompson overcooked a throw to Sam Johnson, Edinburgh were quick to pounce.
Duhan Van Der Merwe’s kicked on into the unguarded backfield, with Bradbury darting through to dot down the try which sealed victory.
Bean barged his way over from close range at the death but it was too little too late for Wilson’s team.
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Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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