Relief for Rennie as a thrilling finale pays dividends
CONNACHT 26 GLASGOW 27
NINE points down after an hour, reduced to 14 players, Glasgow Warriors cast aside their defensive frailties and illdiscipline to come up with a late victory in their first Pro14 clash of the season.
Head coach Dave Rennie definitely liked what he saw, even if he later admitted he could have done without some of the heart-stopping thrills and spills which culminated in Stuart Hogg’s winning drop goal for the visitors.
The sin-binning of Glasgow’s Adam Hastings for a high tackle in the 58th minute had presented in-form Jack Carty with the chance to put Connacht 12 points clear, but his kick from the right was off target.
Instead of falling further behind while a man down, Adam Ashe scored the game’s final try in a pulsating ten-minute period to give the Warriors hope.
Back to their full complement, their dander was up. Despite some excellent Connacht defending which saw them hold solid for one spell of 28 phases in their own 22, the inspirational Hogg slotted a drop goal with six minutes left to give Rennie’s men the lead for the final time.
There were a few scrapes in the final minute as Connacht’s Craig Ronaldson was well short with an ambitious drop goal of his own and then shaved the post with a contentious penalty, but Rennie was delighted with the hunger of his players in that final quarter.
‘I would have rather at the end that we had won that lineout and ran it into touch, but it’s not the way we do things, we kept it entertaining for an extra three or four minutes unfortunately,’ grinned Rennie.
‘We had to hang on, although the referee apologised afterwards over the penalty because he (Nick Grigg) was legally on the ball. Nick did everything right, so I wouldn’t have been critical of him had the penalty gone over.’
Tommy Seymour, George Turner and Ryan Wilson ran in the first-half tries but Warriors still trailed 23-17 at the interval.
After the comeback they mustered, it would have been harsh on Warriors to lose at the death, especially considering they bossed the opening half, scored four tries to Connacht’s two and held the hosts to just three points after the break.
‘For big chunks of the game, it flowed at times, so the team in position got rewarded with penalties,’ said Rennie. ‘We started getting on to the ball more in the last period and got the lineout try.
‘We were probably more composed at that stage than in other periods of the game. We attacked and had a crack at it sometimes when we just needed to play territory and force some more pressure.
‘We did it well at times in the first half and it took us 20 minutes to get going and do anything in the second half. We’re a fit side, though, I thought we defended better in those last five minutes than we did the whole game.
‘We showed a lot of character with 20 minutes to go, down to 14 men and nine points behind on the scoreboard in that period when Adam was sin-binned, so obviously that was crucial.’
After a mixed pre-season when a win over Harlequins was followed by a loss to Northampton Saints, Saturday’s win was the first of ten games in as many weeks for Glasgow as the Pro14 and Champions Cup campaigns gain momentum and entwine.
This time last year, a win at the Sportsground propelled Warriors on a run of ten league wins in a row — and on Friday night, Scotstoun will be heaving as Munster roll into town.
‘We know it’s not about how you start the season, it’s about how you finish but you’ve got to pick up points along the way, so to get five points away from home is vital,’ added Rennie.
‘I imagine there will be some sides who will come here to Galway and struggle, so we’re happy to get this start with a short turnaround to Munster.
‘We’ll have to improve bits of all areas, but the scrum was really solid and our lineout drive was excellent.
‘We need to be more patient. Defensively, there are areas to improve as there wasn’t enough line speed and dominance in the tackle.