Edinburgh Rugby A defeated their Glasgow Warriors counterparts 33-14 at Hive Stadium on Friday night.
Both squads were made up of fringe full-time pro players, senior academy members and some in-form club players and it was a useful exercise.
The game got off to a cagey start before it came to life in the 11th minute. After a good break down the left by Amena Caqusau for Glasgow, the ball was shipped right and his fellow winger Aidan Cross showed good pace to finish. Stand-off Matthew Urwin converted for 7-0.
Six minutes later Edinburgh levelled things up when scrum-half Conor McAlpine took a quick tap and nipped in under the posts. Cammy Scott, the stand-off, converted.
Just before the half hour mark Glasgow regained the lead when a neat chip through was caught be captain Duncan Munn, the centre, who scored with Urwin converting for 14-7.
It stayed that way until half-time before, in the 50th minute, the home side levelled things up. It was tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty who scored the try with Scott converting for 14-14.
Scott then danced through the defence three minutes later to score and he converted himself for 21-14.
With the game in the last few minutes, after some Glasgow pressure, Edinburgh made sure of the win thanks to a fourth try by winger Lewis Wells and then one at the death by hooker Harri Morris, converted by Scott.
Here are five things we learned at Hive Stadium…
Amena Caqasau is an exciting talent
The English-born winger with Fijian family has played for Scotland under-20 before and is a member of the Glasgow senior academy. He has the raw attributes of real pace and footwork that coaches can work with and it will be interesting to see how he continues to develop. In the first half here especially he caused the Edinburgh defence some issues.
Conor McAlpine is a proper ‘nine’s nine’
Scrum-halves are meant to be little buzzbombs who are involved in every aspect of the game, are quick off the mark and cause bigger guys around them constant issues and he does just that. After a long-term injury, the Edinburgh senior academy man impressed in the summer for the Scotland under-20s and he looked sharp here, taking his try well. His passing was crisp too.
Cammy Scott’s class shone through
There were a sprinkling of full-time pros involved here, the likes of second-row Rob Carmichael and captain Connor Boyle for Edinburgh and tighthead prop Fin Richardson and hooker Angus Fraser for Glasgow, but it was Cammy Scott who stood out. At times when the play got a bit loose he controlled things for Edinburgh from stand-off and scored a good try and kicked four conversions.
Great to see players from under-18 Six Nations Festival involved
Scotland under-18s were in Italy earlier this year for the Six Nations Festival. A number of players from that trip - Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Jamie Thomson and Ross Wolfenden for Edinburgh and Joe Roberts, Rory Purvis, Ben Curtis and Harry Provan for the Warriors for example - were playing here and it is great to see players just out of school coming through quite quickly and learning fast.
The more exposure and game time these players get the better
A lot of the senior academy players from both pro teams who were involved here were released to Arnold Clark Men’s Premiership clubs in the draft last week. It is all very well training all week as a group and with the senior pros at Edinburgh and Glasgow, but game time and game experience is needed to kick on. Being involved with amateur clubs and in games like this where they are asked to step up and show what they can do can only help.
Edinburgh Rugby A: Jack Brown; Archie Barbour, Jack Hocking, Fin Thomson, Lewis Wells; Cammy Scott, Conor McAlpine; Mikey Jones, Harri Morris, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Euan McVie, Rob Carmichael, Pat Spence, Freddy Douglas, Connor Boyle (C). Subs all used: Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, Angus McGregor, Archie Owlett, Dylan Jakeman, Hector Patterson, Isaac Coates, Ross Wolfenden, Jamie Thomson.
Tries: McAlpine (17), Blyth-Lafferty (50), Scott (53), Wells (77), Morris (79)
Conversions: Scott (17, 50, 53, 79)
Glasgow Warriors A: Fergus Watson; Aidan Cross, Duncan Munn, Kerr Yule, Amina Caqasau; Matthew Urwin, Brent Jackson; Craig McFeat Smith, Angus Fraser, Fin Richardson, Jare Oguntibeju, Joss Arnold, Joe Roberts, Macenzzie Duncan, Jack Mann. Subs: Jake Shearer, Callum Norrie, Callum Smyth, Cairn Ramsay, Ben Curtis, Richie Simpson, Ben Salmon, Johnny Ventisei, Kerr Johnston, Harry Provan, Rory Purvis.
Tries: Cross (11), Munn (28)
Conversions: Urwin (11, 28)
Read the rules here