AS disappointing as it was to see both Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors tumble out of the Challenge Cup – Europe’s second tier tournament – at the quarter-final stage last weekend, this turn of events should not come as a huge surprise to anyone. In fact, this season has seen Scotland’s two pro teams perform above their usual level in continental competition, so it is perhaps more of a shock that they got as far as they did.
In 26 years of cross-border European rugby, Edinburgh have the slightly better record of the two surviving Scottish sides, reaching the semi-finals of the top tier Champions Cup once [in 2011-12], the quarter-finals twice [in 2003-04 and 2018-19], and ‘the round of 16’ once [in last season’s Covid condensed tournament when they were hammered 56-3 by Racing 92]. In the Challenge Cup, they’ve reached the final once [in 2015-16] and the quarter-finals three times [in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2019-20].
