Edinburgh coach Duncan Hodge laments a lack of cutting edge

The back-to-back holders have a mountain to climb if they want to retain the trophy for a third season as they will go into the second match in the series at Scotstoun on the last weekend of the regular season 13 points adrift after a 25-12 defeat by Gregor Townsend’s men in front of a crowd of 21,036.

Glasgow scored three tries through Junior Bulumakau, Josh Strauss and Alex Dunbar, while Edinburgh could only respond with four penalties from stand-off Duncan Weir against his former club.

“We had pressure and possession but we couldn’t turn it into points,” lamented Hodge. “We kept accumulating – three, three, three – but they scored a couple of tries and opened up a gap. We didn’t get close enough.”

Bulumakau’s opening try came inside a minute after an Edinburgh defensive mix up but they hit back to briefly lead 6-5. However, Glasgow grew in confidence as the game progressed and were worthy winners.

“We played okay for 20 minutes but couldn’t get away from them,” said Hodge. “There were six penalties in a row for us and they got a yellow card, but then it kind of reversed in the last 15 minutes of the half when we conceded five penalties in a row to give them a foothold in the game.

“We had possession but they are a strong defensive team. They slowed our ball down really well and probably got quicker ball than us. That was definitely a factor that we didn’t score those points.”

The result leaves Edinburgh tenth out of 12 in the PRO12 and they now face a trip to Zebre at the weekend, who beat them at home earlier in the season,