Parks boots Glasgow back to the summit

Glasgow 25 Edinburgh 12:Glasgow will go into 2010 as Magners League leaders after beating Edinburgh at Firhill this afternoon. The Warriors dominated from the third minute when Dan Parks' kick to the corner set up the field position for his first penalty.

Chris Paterson equalised a couple of minutes later but in the tenth minute the crowd rose to applaud Parks’ second penalty which meant he became the first man to reach 1000 points in the Magners League.

With all the territory and possession, Glasgow still had to rely on the boot of Parks to keep them in the lead, four first-half penalties and a drop goal taking Glasgow in 15-12 ahead. Paterson replied with four penalties for the visitors.

With Richie Vernon and Thom Evans held up short and only the video referee denying Jon Welsh a touchdown, Glasgow came close to grabbing the first try.

But with David Callam and Scott Newlands putting in the big hits in the Edinburgh defence, Glasgow were unable to go over in the opening 40 minutes and it was not until seven minutes into the second half that the touchdown finally came.

Vernon had terrorised the Edinburgh defence throughout the first half and from a scrum on the 22, the Glasgow number eight spun out of a couple of tackles to grab the game-breaking try.

Parks slotted the conversion from the touchline then stretched the lead with his fifth successful penalty before the visitors finally came to life.

Pounding the Glasgow line for ten minutes however brought nothing as John Barclay, Vernon and Kelly Brown kept them out.

A Paterson penalty miss ten minutes from time summed up the Edinburgh afternoon and there was no way an unimaginative attack was going to unpick a solid Glasgow defence in the final few minutes when they had to run every penalty into an unbreachable wall.

Glasgow now lead Leinster by a single point at the top of the table at the halfway point in the league.