GUINNESS PRO14

Rennie hails Hogg after Warriors win

GlASGOW Warriors coach Dave Rennie has paid tribute to Stuart Hogg after the two-time British & Irish Lion salvaged a PRO14 opening-day victory for his side.

Sporting a new shaven-headed look, Hogg demonstrated an addition to his already vaunted repertoire when he fired over a drop goal six minutes from time to edge out hosts Connacht 27-26 at The Sportsground, making it the third successive year that Glasgow have opened the league season by winning in Galway.

“He was excellent, but not just at what was obvious,” said Rennie.

“It was his first drop goal at this level, but he bangs them over in training and nails them from 60 yards. It was really smart to drop back in the pocket like he did. Obviously, he also kicked a pretty important conversion and he laid on the first try, but his contribution is also around leadership and we were very happy with the composure shown by a lot of our leaders to manage our way through that.”

Rennie admitted that Hogg was lucky to get away with carrying the ball behind his own goalline and touching it down just seconds before the end of normal time, which should have resulted in a five-metre scrum with the home team putting the ball in, instead of which he was allowed to relieve pressure with a drop out from the 22 metre line.

However, for all that the coach also felt his side had infringed too often, he reckoned Glasgow had also suffered unfairly at the hands of the officials, so were perhaps due for a mistake to go their way on a day when Tommy Seymour opened the scoring in the first minute, while George Turner, co-captain Ryan Wilson and Adam Ashe also crossed the opposition line.

“It is a concern. It’s way too many. There were a handful that we don’t agree with,” he said of the penalty count.