THE curious thing about last Friday’s first 1872 Cup match of the season was that although Glasgow were worthy winners after dominating most of the game, on another night Edinburgh might well have emerged victorious.
The normally reliable Emiliano Boffelli missed two penalty attempts in his team’s 16-10 defeat, for example, while Duhan van der Merwe had a second-half break from which he might well have scored. The winger had been seen hobbling slightly just a minute or two earlier, and had sat out his team’s previous match because of an ankle injury, which probably explained why he was short of his best form at Scotstoun.
So those were 11 points or more which went begging from the visitors’ point of view. And that is before we get to the frenzied finale, in which Jaco van der Walt scored to put his team into losing-bonus territory, then Edinburgh launched another attack right from the restart in search of the full score that would have snatched victory from the Warriors’ grasp.
They were thwarted, of course, but, as they prepare for this Friday’s second leg at BT Murrayfield, the capital club can look back on those incidents as proof of how close they came. Charlie Savala, for one, believes they should have become the first visiting side to win at Scotstoun in the league this year, and is confident that, with greater involvement in attack for the likes of Van der Merwe in particular, they can turn the tables at home.
"It was a weird game to be part of,” the stand-off admitted. “It was one of those ones when we didn't really land a punch until 60, 65 minutes. We wanted to stay in the fight from the start.
"We think we should have won the game. We played the better rugby. I think there were a few crucial moments that we will look back on and think, 'we could have won', but we take a lot of positives [from it].”
After going in at half-time 10-0 behind, Edinburgh certainly began the second half more assertively, and ensured that Van der Merwe became more involved. Savala believes that something similar will be needed in the second leg - ideally from the start this time.
"We spoke about it at half-time, about trying to get him into the game. We found it hard early on, with the kicking battle. We spoke about getting more hands on the ball and in the second half I felt like he came looking for more work. The more we give him the ball, the better we play.
"[We need to] just finish our opportunities, to be honest. When we’re on top of them, we've got to stay on top of them. Our breakdown is key, stacking those quick rucks.
"Back at home we'll always put on a performance. We'll take our medicine, and there will be things we look back on and work on. The breakdown has got to be better.”
Savala started the Scotstoun match in part because Blair Kinghorn was still suffering the effects of a back spasm in the previous game against Castres, and it remains to be seen if he holds on to the No 10 jersey on Friday - although he certainly played with the confidence which Mike Blair spoke of last week as one of his main virtues as a player.
According to the head coach, it is a quality that Savala owes in part to his Australian upbringing, and contrasts with the innate pessimism which can all too often be a part of the Scottish outlook. The stand-off himself, however, believes that the Edinburgh squad as a whole have a lot of self-belief.
"We always look at the positives, every week,” he insisted. “For me as a 10, we can't go in looking at the negatives. I like to play the game with a positive mindset. If that can reflect on other players around me then that's great, but as a team we have that positive mindset.
"I've really found my feet. I'm really comfortable playing fly-half - I'm growing week on week.
“I've got a lot of confidence with the boys around me. Playing off good ball is what you always want as a fly-half: I feel like our forward pack is very strong and that allows us to play off the front foot most of the time.”
