JACKSON COLUMN: Scottish duo land memorable double

As a formidable start to the GUINNESS PRO12, the country's Big Two could not have wished for anything more challenging than first round matches against Irish provincial opponents reinforced by five winning European Cup finals between them. Edinburgh and the Warriors, their highly consistent western rivals from Glasgow, came up trumps.

On an exhilarating weekend when the rugby matched the blazing weather with record tries galore, Scottish teams stole the show.

Beating Munster and Leinster, albeit by the combined margin of a drop goal, amounted to a jolting declaration of joint intent.

In the course of defying odds traditionally stacked against anyone confronting the locals in Limerick, Edinburgh survived the recurring disruption of three yellow cards and still managed to win where they had won just once.

For Munster, it turned out to be an historic night for all the wrong reasons.

Not since the declaration of rugby as an open sport almost 20 years ago had they lost three matches on the bounce at Thomond Park.

They have now, Edinburgh emulating wins at the back end of last season by Ulster (19-17) and the Warriors (22-5).

Nobody found it harder to take than Munster's most-capped player and enduring survivor of the winning European campaigns of 2006 and 2008, Donncha O'Callaghan.

What he had to say about the collective anguish of a novel experience underlined the priceless nature of Edinburgh's success.

"It's a horrible feeling when you've embarrassed yourselves and that's what we did," O'Callaghan, captain in the absence of Peter O'Mahony, told the Irish Examiner. "You expect certain things at home. It's inexcusable to be honest."

Edinburgh edged home despite being out-scored on tries and reduced at one stage to 13 players, a triumph for their resilience and mental fortitude under Alan Solomons.

And to think that last season they won away from Murrayfield just once throughout the entire campaign.

Less than 24 hours after their neighbours' startling start, the Warriors had completed a winning double made all the sweeter for having been at the expense of the Leinster team whose irresistible brand of total rugby had overwhelmed Gregor Townsend's team during last season's final in Dublin.

They turned the tables on Leinster so effectively during the first-half at Scotstoun that the defending champions were lining up behind their own posts almost as often as the Warriors had been at the RDS some fourteen weeks earlier.

Leinster are not champions for nothing. Sixteen points behind at half-time after thrilling tries from Pete Horne, Jonny Gray and Josh Strauss, they threatened to turn the game upside down and inside out with two late converted tries in as many minutes near the end.

Still, the Warriors found a way of bouncing back off the ropes to land the knock-out blow with the last kick.

When referee Nigel Owens pinged two Leinster players for offside, substitute Stuart Hogg duly punished them once his colleagues had dissuaded Nikola Matawalu in his excitement that running the penalty was not a very clever idea.

While Edinburgh's starting XV contained six overseas players, the Warriors put out an all-Scottish team with the exceptions of the South African No. 8 Strauss and the Fijian second row, Leone Nakarawa.

Of the other 13, 12 have been capped by Scotland with the exception of centre Mark Bennett and, at 21, his time will surely come.

The home-grown nature of Townsend's squad extends to the bench. All but two of the eight on duty there last Saturday are Scottish internationals, from the veteran Sean Lamont to the youngest, back row forward Adam Ashe.

The ultimate prize may still elude them despite four play-off qualifications in the last five seasons but their results, measured over the course of the regular season since September 2012, means the Warriors have won more matches since then than anyone else.

Their record of 35 wins from 45 regular-season PRO12 fixtures is eight more than Munster and three more than Ulster over the same period.

Leinster may have won one fewer than the Warriors but that does not take into account their renowned ability to go the distance.

The final having become a perennial highlight of their season, nobody would bet against the holders making it six out of six next May.

They open their home campaign on Saturday against the Scarlets whose former head coach, Simon Easterby, has been reintroduced to the Ireland camp as forwards' coach under Joe Schmidt.

The west Walians have already revived their cherished reputation as supreme entertainers, a quality stretching all the way back to the innovative skills of Ivor Jenkins, a back row forward so revered for his performances during the 1930 Lions' tour of New Zealand that they called him 'The King'.

Andrew Trimble's late try and Ian Humphreys' conversion saved Ulster at Parc-y-Scarlets, four tries apiece adding up to the highest of high-scoring draws in the Celtic League for ten years.

It also provided the perfect script for Sky to bring their first PRO12 match to an English audience as well as those on opposite sides of the Irish Sea.

It was, in fact, the second highest draw the competition in any of its guises had witnessed. The highest, as dug out of the record book by the PRO12's official statistician, Stuart Farmer, also involved Llanelli and another Irish province, Connacht.

They drew 33-all back in the early days of regionalism in Wales when the Scarlets played at Stradey Park and Scott Quinnell was in the penultimate season of his trail-blazing career, having returned home after sampling professional life on contrasting sides of the English rugby divide - at Wigan, then Richmond during their eventful time in the Premiership.

At least two of the five winning teams from last weekend will stay unbeaten no matter what happens in Round Two - Edinburgh or Connacht who meet at Murrayfield on Friday evening, the Blues and the Warriors who collide at the Arms Park on Sunday afternoon.

After a record 33 tries in Round One, stand by for more PRO12 pyrotechnics at venues in Edinburgh, Newport, Belfast, Parma, Dublin and Cardiff.

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