That’s the Glasgow Warriors we’ve been waiting for. Where have they been all season?
An incredible performance from what was considered a makeshift side, produced equal amounts of attacking flair and defensive ferocity, in an enthralling rugby match.
Sam Johnson’s excellent try in the opening three minutes, a
combination of patient controlled forward play culminating in the “right to go
wide” and clinical backs play, set the tone for what was to be an open affair
with some fantastic attacking rugby.
“Big Horne”, who I have oftened criticised at stand-off, but looks so much
better in the role if he has his brother alongside him, was next to cross the try-line.
Benetton centre Tuisava had given away a cheap penalty for
side-entry at a ruck, and once Horne Sr kicked deep into the Benetton 22, a
lovely delayed pass from Horneito off the back of a maul, let Steyn draw two
defenders with his run, and just as he had with Johnson’s try, Steyn passed
well out of the tackle, and Tuisava could not stop Horne Sr getting over the
line.
Benetton’s maul has been a potent weapon for them recently, and once they
gained field position through successive penalties, Hame Faiva reduced the
deficit.
The home side then started to press on, but the Warriors’ defence held firm, George Turner particularly impressing, until Benetton knocked-on just metres from the line.
A moment of magic between the Horne brothers sent the prolific “Horneito” in under the sticks, but as the half drew to a close, Benetton crumbled Glasgow’s scrum, repeatedly, on their 5m line.
Aki Seiluli got sin-binned after the concession of a fourth
penalty, and Braam Steyn crossed with the last play of a tremendous first-half.
Half-time: Benetton 12 – 19 Glasgow Warriors
Whilst still down to 14-men Glasgow were under the cosh in the opening
stages of the second half, and a redemptive try-line hit by Kebble, forced Benetton’s
Steyn to spill the pill on the line.
The Warriors inexperienced flankers, Bruce Flockhart and Tom Gordon, had played
extremely well, and a wonderful line-break by Flockhart saw him charge towards
the line.
Who else would be there on his shoulder, but Horneito, to
finish the job, and the bonus point try. That’s him on 826 tries in 4 matches
now. Just ask Kevin Millar.
Benetton were playing some nice stuff too, but apart from at the set-piece,
Glasgow had defended impeccably well, and it took a wonderful try finished by
Antonio Rizzi to reduce the deficit to a converted try, at 19-26.
Another excellent Flockhart break into the Benetton’s 22 should perhaps have
been dished out to his right, as Horneito sniffed his 9780th try since
last Tuesday,
A horrible looking injury to Nick Grigg had seen him stretchered off in a neck
brace (we wish him well), but a splendid looping pass from his replacement Glenn
Bryce allowed Niko Matawalu to jink in and seal the deal – he’d better have
done; he had Johnson in acres of space to his left for an easier run-in.
Further gloss was added to the score when Andrew Davidson intercepted Tavuyara’s pass, and that finished off an absolutely superb game of rugby, containing the attacking flair and defensive line-speed we recognise with the Warriors.
During periods of pressure, some heroic try-line defending when Benetton had advantage slowed the home-side’s inroads into the game as they sought to fought back.
For example, Grigg made one remarkable try-stopper on Ioane on a free-play, and although Benetton would eventually score, it slowed momentum and ran the clock down until the half-time regrouping period.
Referee: Nigel Owens (RWU)
SRBlog Man of the Match: Had he not conceded penalties for popping in up the scrum, George Turner would be in for a shout.
The vintage engine-room of Harley and Swinson, rumbled on nicely, but, predictably, it’s George Horne.
He’s the best scrum-half in Scotland. Box-kicking and passing is on par with his contenders, he snipes better, and he runs the best support lines in the game, because he has excellent game awareness.
Instinctively good players, such as him and Russell are, should start together if you want to be the fastest team in the world.
“Horneito” won’t learn top-level international experience sitting on the bench.
18 responses
Great win on the end, Flockhart made a difference in that second half.
Well done Weegies.
That team at the end reminded me of the warriors a few years ago. Young Scottish guys playing fast offloading rugby with just that extra sprinkling of experience and class from guys like Du Plessis and Matawalu.
Great win in the end. Benneton are a serious outfit these days and taking 5 points away from home will do Glasgow’s confidence no end of good.
Great game for Glasgow.
Flockhart had his best game and Gordon played well.
Horne proved his doubters wrong with a great performance from 10. His kicking for touch and for goal are piss poor however.
Our scrum was shite until Kebble and Du Plessis came on.
And lastly…my thoughts are still with Nick Grigg after that horrible collision…he could be out for a very long time.
Really gutsy Warriors performance & whilst Flockhart and Horne jnr were both good for me it was old man Swinson for MoM, workrate, ball carrying and defence all on point for 70+mins, very unexpected /very welcome
I wouldn’t have argued against that. Both he and Harley had good games.
That’s a fantastic performance and result from Glasgow, as someone said above they need to bottle this up and keep it going for the rest of the season.
Excellent result for the Warriors today against a Treviso side that has really come on in the past couple of seasons. A few heart-stopping passages of play for Glasgow fans – Peter Horne’s missed touch late in the game got me thinking ‘Oh no, they’re going to stack this lead’. And those scrum penalties!
But an enterprising, energetic team effort featuring a number of players not often getting starts. And Zebre did Glasgow a big favour by stuffing Cheetahs too.
Well done Warriors. Hoping this is a good turning point for the remainder of this Pro 14 season.
Great result for the Warriors away from home. Horneito is rapidly developing in to a world class scrum half. As you say his support lines should be an inspiration to anyone who aspires to play top level rugby and his finishing rate (tries per minutes played) is exceptional. Not sure how long he has left on his Glasgow contract but you would expect some big clubs to be having a look at him.
Nit picking I know!
The looping pass to Niko which provided the killer score to finish the match was actually from Huw Jones and not Bryce.
A great change in the point of attack that left Benetton flat footed and Niko did the rest!
To be fair, the commentator on premier sports said it was Bryce instead of Jones, so we can blame him. Pretty poor commentary – he was really bad at saying which players were doing things which is a pain if there isn’t a replay – although it seemed odd he was doing it all himself (while they had at least 3 at Murrayfield) so I wonder if someone was off sick!
Iain has shown us that he marked the pass coming from Huw in his notes so he was attempting an ironic jibe at the commentary, which didn’t make it through editing…
The reason the commentator kept getting Jones and bryce muddled up was because on the team sheet pre ko, Jones was listed as jersey 22 and Bryce was listed as 23 but when they came on it was the reverse (i.e. jones wearing 23, bryce 22). Commentator obviously doesnt know the players well enough so was going off the numbers.
Fair enough, but presumably he is a professional commentator and should have a fair idea who all the players in each team are if he has spent any time doing his homework! Not to mention you would hope someone else would pick it up and pass the message on at some point.
Premier Sports really is pretty shoddy.
I may be slightly prejudiced as I have just tried to watch the Edinburgh game and the streaming on the app has been shocking.
The coverage is pish poor….. i kicked up a fuss with them over it, as well as the price hike this season, and they gave me a 3/4 month deal at 4.99….. i plan to cancel it once that expires
Agree that premier sports is shocking. But want to offer a potential work around for others. Using a mac, I was trying to stream through chrome and it was terrible. But then switched to a different browser (safari) and it worked just fine.
So switching web browser might save someone a frustrating night (or it might not!).
Premier sports coverage is woeful. Cheap and tacky is how I would sum it up. Was way better on Alba with the legendary Hugh Dan commentating
The Alba coverage was educational. I learned a few words of Gallic, very handy on a trip to the western isles , I cannot wait to impress the natives with greetings such as ‘Penus Glasghu’ and ‘aggus matawalooo’.
Premier Sports coverage is only fit for Radio Ballydung . Maybe they could get Podge and Rodge to introduce it.