The Cup May Be Contrived, But, The Rivalry Is Real Tonight

BACK IN THE DAY, when John Beattie was only a household name in the rugby community, the big man wrote a Herald piece about the age-old Edinburgh v Glasgow rivalry.

John Beattie - was a posh boy, until he passed Harthill

The gist of his argument was, in Glasgow rugby, he and his Accies pals were considered “the posh boys,” theirs was the scalp everyone else – High School, Hillhead, Hutchie, West, Ayr and Kilmarnock – all wanted. Every game against another Glasgow side was a cup tie.

Then they go on the bus and traversed the A8, and, somewhere past Harthill, they stopped being the posh boys and became the upstarts, determined to kick the shit out of the posh boys from Fettes, the Academy, Stewart's-Melville, Heriot's and Watsonians.

There is still an element of this today. If Brexit has been largely caused by English Exceptionalism – the London Establishment wanting to have their cake and eat it in relations with Europe; is there not also more than a trace of that in the fact Edinburgh had to have three of the six Super-6 franchises, a move which has made no sense to anyone outside the committee room wherein this daft decision was made?

Which brings us to today's latest episode of Inter-City rivalry, when Edinburgh and Glasgow lock horns at BT Murrayfield, at tea time tonight. On league form, Glasgow are the higher-ranked side: they lead Conference A of the Guinness PRO14 by six points from Munster, and, if they win tonight, they will stretch their lead to at least ten points.

Edinburgh, meanwhile, lie fifth of the seven teams in Conference B, and even if they win, should Benetton beat Zebre in the Italian holiday Derby, then Edinburgh will still be below them.

Of course, as my old mentor James “Solly” Sanderson used to maintain, all those years ago when he was inventing the radio sports phone-in: “the form book goes out of the window where derby games are concerned.” This has certainly been the case of late, since the 1872 Cup is currently in Edinburgh's possession.

Can Glasgow win it back, over the next two games? “Solly” might have suffered from piles – so often did he sit on the fence in matters Old Firm – but, I am not risking a 4x4 stake up my jacksie – I reckon, Glasgow will get the job done over the next two matches.

I don't see there being much in it, but, I feel, Glasgow has the greater number of players able to change things with that burst of magic, and, in the end, I expect them to carry the day, particularly since, I think they have the stronger bench.

Tonight's teams, as always on here, in 1-23 order, are:

Edinburgh: Pierre Schoeman, Stuart McInally, Willem Nel, Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist, Luke Hamilton, Hamish Watson, Viliame Mata; Henry Pyrgos, Jaco van der Walt, Duhan van der Merwe, Chris Dean, James Johnstone, Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn.

Replacements: Dave Cherry, Allan Dell, Pietro Ceccarelli, Callum Hunter-Hill, Luke Crosbie, Nathan Fowles, Simon Hickey, Juan Pablo Socino.

Glasgow Warriors: Oli Kebble, Grant Stewart, Siua Halanukonuka, Rob Harley, Jonny Gray, Adam Ashe, Callum Gibbins, Matt Fagerson; George Horne, Adam Hastings, DTH van der Merwe, Pete Horne, Nick Grigg, Tommy Seymour, Stuart Hogg, Replacements: Kevin Bryce, Jamie Bhatti, D'arcy Rae, Tim Swinson, Chris Fusaro, Ali Price, Huw Jones, Nikola Matawalu.

Referee: Mike Adamson, AR1: Lloyd Linton, AR2: Keith Allan, TMO: Andrew McMenemy.

The match is live on Premier Sports; while I will be listening to the superior BBC Radio Shortbread commentary, featuring the great Peter Wright.