Glasgow produced two gritty fightbacks to force a draw and gain the first-leg advantage from Edinburgh before a record crowd for the 1872 Cup at Murrayfield.
The Warriors were twice 10 points in arrears but justifiably felt they should have won behind a virtuoso man-of-the-match performance by scrum-half Chris Cusiter and in front of a Boxing Day crowd of over 13,000.
Ruaridh Jackson was the key man at the death, creating one try and scoring the other to cancel out Tim Visser’s two scores for Edinburgh in a thrilling contest amid the winds swirling around the national stadium.
Both Visser’s tries were marginal awards given by the TV match official, and Warriors coach Sean Lineen said he had ”mixed emotions”.
He said: ”We were off the pace first half but we end up possibly unlucky not to win. The decisions on the Visser tries and on one Dave Lemi chance went against us but could have gone the other way.”
He added: ”I’m impressed with the determination and the way we kept fighting for the momentum and that’s 10 games unbeaten out of 11, which shows our character.”
Home coach Michael Bradley admitted his side hadn’t had control for long periods of the game.
”At 20 minutes to go I was looking forward to the win, with two minutes to go I was hoping for the draw,” he said. ”Glasgow are nine points ahead of us in the league and deservedly so, and they showed real resilience.”
Edinburgh sought to get their primary weapon Visser into the game as soon as possible, but it was the back row that breached the Warriors’ defence for the third-minute score.
The home side’s speed of phase ball already had their rivals stretched deep in their own territory when Nefani Talei’s brilliant offload allowed Ross Rennie to mark his recall with the try, Laidlaw converting.
Glasgow nearly got an instant reply thanks to the lively Lemi, who chipped and darted down the left and Chris Paterson just got the grounding ahead of the Samoan, although it took TMO Ian Ramage several looks to be sure.
The Warriors suffered a scare when Al Kellock took a heavy knock and the stretcher was called for.
Although the skipper was able to carry on after treatment, things got quickly worse for the visitors with Ryan Grant limping off and Pat McArthur yellow carded for obstructing James King, Greig Laidlaw making the penalty in the swirling wind look easy for a 10-0 lead.
Duncan Weir however lifted the Warriors with a penalty as Glasgow negotiated the sin-bin without damage.
And as McArthur returned Glasgow struck for a try, Kellock spotting a gap at the blindside of a ruck and blasting through from close range, Weir levelling with a touchline conversion.
Glasgow continued to suffer from injury with Johnnie Beattie leaving and then Lamont took a heavy impact at pace going for a high ball and was stretchered off after a long delay for treatment.
The teams swapped penalties at the start of the second half before Visser edged things Edinburgh’s way with his swift double.
Glasgow failed to control scrum ball in their own half and the Edinburgh back row pounced, Talei finding King who put Visser in at the corner, the wing given the benefit of the doubt as he looked to have dropped the ball in the act of scoring.
Within two minutes the Flying Dutchman was at it again, swatting aside Stuart Hogg after a floated pass from King, charging 40 yards and reaching out to score in the corner despite Lemi’s tackle, although it was a tight call requiring the TMO with Visser’s elbow appearing to have touched the line.
Undeterred, Glasgow launched their second fightback, the newly-introduced Jackson’s grubber allowing fellow replacement Colin Shaw to score a try, and the Scotland fly-half then turned opportunist for his dramatic late score.
The Warriors were driving a maul towards the line and had a penalty award when Cusiter tried a high kick, Lee Jones spilled it in the in-goal area and Jackson pounced, although he missed the tough conversion.
Jackson had a late chance to win it with a penalty that struck the padding on the posts, and Edinburgh scrambled the ball away to preserve the draw.
Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Wire