The biggest cheer of the night at the Hive came after just six minutes when Scotland international Darcy Graham, who hadn’t played for eight months because of injury, scored in the corner in his comeback game.

There were other big moments for the crowd with new signing Mosese Tuipulotu’s thumping tackle on Ollie Thornley who he bundled into touch instantly endearing him to the home fans.

Other summer arrivals Magnus Bradbury, Paul Hill, Ross Thompson and Matt Scott were all in the starting line-up with Tuipulotu while Ross McCann, who joined from the GB sevens squad, came on in the second half. Bradbury celebrated his return to Edinburgh following a spell with Bristol Bears with a first half try. Scrum-half Ben Vellacott also got one in a first forty minutes that ended 26-19 to Gloucester.

With Edinburgh changing all 15 and Gloucester 14 out of their 15 players at half-time it was really a different game in the second half. Throughout it was always open and reasonably exciting for a pre-season friendly. Most penalty attempts were turned down in favour of either kicks to the corner or running the ball.


Tom Dodd got the first try of the second half for Edinburgh followed by one from hooker David Cherry. After that most of the decent attacking moves came from Gloucester but they couldn’t score due to some strong defending by the home side who held on to win.

Sean Everitt thinks one warm-up game ahead of the start of the URC season is enough
I’m not convinced that is the case but he knows his players better than anybody. Edinburgh hadn’t had a competitive fixture since June 1 when they lost 31-6 away to Benetton in the final regulation URC game of the season that meant they failed to make the play-offs.

Glasgow Warriors have had two pre-season matches, both lost, and are taking this week off ahead of their opening URC match away to Ulster in Belfast next weekend. Everitt has taken a completely different approach and the match against Gloucester- where two different 15s took the field in either half- is their only warm-up game before they play Leinster at home in their opening fixture.

The Irish outfit is one of the strongest in the league and playing 30 players against Gloucester rather than giving a run out to the 15 that will start against Leinster -although the first half team looks like his likely line-up- is a brave decision.

It’s great for Edinburgh to have Darcy Graham and Emiliano Boffelli  back
This was Graham’s first match in eight months after injury forced him to miss the Six Nations and Scotland’s summer tour. His last game had been for Edinburgh against Gloucester in a Challenge Cup defeat at The Hive on January 13. It was only a brief run out this time round but he did get a try and it was great to see his smiling face again out on the pitch. Boffelli, who had been of Argentina’s stars of the 2023 World Cup, hadn’t played since undergoing back surgery in April, and played at full-back in the second half. Having both of them back will revitalise the Edinburgh back division.

It’s early days for new signing Mosese Tuipulotu
Glasgow Warriors took a gamble that paid off when they signed his brother Sione from Japanese side Shizuoka Blue Revs back in 2021. The Australian-born centre, who qualified for Scotland through his grandmother from Greenock, was a massive success for Glasgow and his adopted country. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend hopes that one day he will be selecting the Tuipulotu brothers together in the centre for Scotland. Time will tell if that happens as the 23-year-old Mosese hardly played for the Waratahs in his two-years there and has a long way to go to becoming a Scotland international. He made his Edinburgh debut from the start beside Matt Scott against Gloucester and put in a couple of thumping tackles. With his fellow centre James Lang out with a leg injury for the next few weeks he could find himself involved from the bench against Leinster.

New prop Paul Hill has a hard act to follow
WP Nel was first choice tighthead for Edinburgh for 11 years but with him retired they need someone to take his starting place. Hill made his debut against Gloucester and did okay but there were hardly any scrums when he was on. D’arcy Rae replaced him at the break with Javan Sebastian and Angus Williams both missing the game through injury.

The German-born former England international, he has no Scottish connection, joined the capital club after nine years at Northampton Saints. The positive is that he will be available all year round as he dropped off the England radar years ago. At 29-years-old he has a good few years left in him yet especially when you consider Nel retired at the age of 38.

Edinburgh new attack coach Scott Mathie has the players but does he have the experience to make the attack improve?
Throwing the ball around in a pre-season friendly -especially in the first half- is all well and good but can Edinburgh score tries against top sides such as Leinster? The South African, who joined the club in the summer after winning back to back MLR titles with the New England Free Jacks, takes over the role of attack coach from Rob Chrystie who has been moved to be ‘skills and off the ball coach.’

The Edinburgh attack last season was far too predictable and failed to make the most of their wide players such as Duhan van der Merwe who played well in the first forty minutes he was on the pitch. Mathie has been brought in to give it more bite but the standard of rugby in the USA is a lot lower than the URC so he has a lot to prove and to learn.

To give him just one friendly match to try out his new attacking structures -and to change the whole team at half-time- wasn’t ideal for him. Let’s hope the Edinburgh attack can hit the ground running against Leinster.

Edinburgh
All starting 15 changed at half-time.
Goosen(Boffelli), Graham (McCann) Tuipulotu (Bennett), Scott (Currie), Van der Merwe(Wells) Thompson (Healy), Vellacott (Price) ; Schoeman(Venter), Ashman (Cherry), Hill (Rae) Sykes(Carmichael) Gilchrist (Hodgson) Ritchie (Dodd), Watson (Boyle), Bradbury (Muncaster)

Tries: Graham, Bradbury, Dodd, Cherry
Conversions: Thompson (2) Healy (2)

Gloucester
Fourteen of their starting fifteen changed at half
Barton (Adderley-Jones), Wade (Chapman), Llewellyn (Cooper), Atkinson (Taylor), Thorley (Reeves) Anscombe (Atkinson) Williams (Engerfield); Rapava Ruskin (Knight), Singleton (Blackmore, 25min), Fasogbon (Gotovtsev), Thomas (Clarke), Alemanno (Gwynn) Ackerman (Knowles), Ludlow (Taylor) Mercer (James).

Tries: Llewellyn, Mercer, Williams, Fasogbon
Conversions: Barnton (3)

Referee: Ian Kenny (SRU)
Attendance : 5,521