Torrential rain claimed the New Year’s Day second leg of the 1872 Cup between Glasgow and Edinburgh only 50 minutes before kick-off at Scotstoun.
With water lying on several areas of the pitch after four hours of steady rain, referee Andrew McMenemy had little choice but to give the thumbs-down after a final inspection.
Glasgow had stated on their official Twitter account at 4.10pm that the game was definitely on.
However just over an hour later, with no end in sight to the downpour, officials and both coaches were forced to admit defeat.
The Warriors’ Rabodirect PRO12 match against Benetton Treviso two weeks ago was also called off an hour from kick-off because of waterlogging after heavy rain.
Glasgow led 20-16 from last week’s first leg at Murrayfield and were seeking their fifth successive win in the fixture, so head coach Gregor Townsend was disappointed.
“That’s a match we all wanted to play and unfortunately the weather beat us,” he said. “I spoke to Andrew at 4.30 and he said he’d inspect at five, and he also said there could be the potential to put kick-off back half an hour to allow the weather to clear, but clearly it hasn’t.
“We’re disappointed that the game’s not on, doubly so because it happened as well two weeks ago.”
Townsend is an enthusiast for 3G artificial pitches used by Cardiff and Saracens, and believes long-term that Scotstoun could be a good place for one.
“We played on a 3G pitch at Cardiff this year and we enjoyed it, we train on them and you’re going to see more and more of them in the future,” he continued. “There’s been exceptionally heavy rain these last few days, but the pitch drained well yesterday and one forecast said the rain would clear by six tonight.
“The work they did in the summer to retain the grass and firmness has helped this season, but with a 3G we could play our matches when we’re meant to play them, and obviously two games off is not good for our plans or for our supporters.”
It means Glasgow now have to fit in two re-arranged matches, with the only windows in the spring schedule being on Six Nations weekends and during the latter stages of the Heineken Cup.
“Logistical elements don’t make it possible to play this weekend,” he said.
“Discussions with (Edinburgh head coach) Alan Solomons have started already, and no doubt the issue of international calls on certain weekends will come into those.
“There’s the fact that Edinburgh are still in with a decent chance of qualification for the latter stages of the Heineken Cup, so we’ll have talks and see what we come up with.”
The fixture backlog could have repercussions for Glasgow’s play-off chances in the PRO12, with rivals Munster, Leinster, Ospreys and Ulster all having games in the next two days.
The Warriors currently lie fourth, level on 33 points with Ulster, who host leaders Muster at Ravenhill tonight.
Edinburgh are back in seventh place, level on 22 points with the Scarlets and the Cardiff Blues, who moved up after beating the Dragons 21-13 at the Arms Park yesterday afternoon.