Horne comes of age with electric display
WHEN George Horne swept the board winning both the Young Player of the Year and Player of the Year awards at Glasgow Warriors last season, it was natural to wonder what the next step might be for the gifted scrum-half.
It was certainly a fine way to cap his debut season at the club. But he cranked it up a notch on Saturday and, perhaps unsurprisingly, found himself clutching another personal accolade by the end of a highly productive outing in France.
Winning away on French soil in the European Champions Cup wasn’t just a feather in the cap for Glasgow. There was a feeling that, on a personal level, this was a coming-of-age performance from man-of-the-match Horne.
An electric presence around the base of the ruck and scrum, he spent the afternoon sniping and picking more holes in Lyon’s defence than MPs have picked in the current Brexit proposals.
Given that he was selected ahead of Ali Price, there was also a sense that Horne has now stolen a march not only at club level, but potentially in the Scotland setup, too, if he can replicate this on a consistent basis.
It vindicated Dave Rennie’s team selection and the head coach will have been similarly enthused by the performance of Adam Ashe, who excelled in the back row and was rewarded with two tries.
The bonus-point victory puts Glasgow in an excellent position to qualify for the knockout stages, albeit Saracens returned to the top of Pool 3 yesterday after beating Cardiff Blues at Allianz Park.
With Lyon now effectively out of Europe, their motivation won’t be particularly great for the return match at Scotstoun this Saturday and there is no reason why Warriors shouldn’t target another five-point haul.
Certainly, if they can win both of their remaining home games against the French side and Cardiff, then they would move on to a minimum of 18 points, possibly 20 if they can secure winning bonus points in both matches.
That would surely be enough to progress as one of the best runners-up, supposing that Sarries go ahead and finish top of the section.
Come what may, Rennie’s men are making a far better fist of it than they did last season when, after losing their first three games, they were already out at this juncture.
But they’re alive and kicking this time round, thanks to a mature and composed performance which yielded five tries.
Afterwards, Rennie said: ‘It’s a beautiful stadium but the pitch is pretty heavy, the ground was getting churned up at every scrum. We’re used to a firm surface at home so we’ve got some pretty tired legs especially because it was such a physical game. Lyon like to play a lot of footy and they challenged us all over the park.
‘We’ll put a very strong side on the field next week and there will be changes. There is not an awful lot between a lot of our boys and we want to reward performance and provide opportunities.
‘There will be a handful of changes, but we’ll be putting out as good a side as possible to get the job done.’
Adam Hastings traded early penalties with Lyon scrum-half Jonathan Pelissie, before Ashe got the opening score of the game on 20 minutes.
It came at the end of some excellent multi-phase play from Glasgow, which culminated in a good break and silky pop pass from Horne into the hands of Ashe, who duly dotted down.
Kiwi winger Toby Arnold replied with a try for the home side, but Horne then turned from creator to scorer as Glasgow stretched further clear on the stroke of half-time.
Lyon toyed with the idea of mounting a comeback early in the second half when France winger Noa Nakaitaci scored, but Glasgow simply had too much class and power for their opponents.
Stuart Hogg got their third try of the afternoon with a really opportunistic effort on 58 minutes, sneaking in ahead of Lyon’s Charl McLeod to touch down after a clever grubber kick from Peter Horne.
The bonus point was secured just a couple of minutes later when Huw Jones — who had been on the field for just 30 seconds — scored with his first touch.
Hastings had intercepted a loose Lyon pass and Jones was on a typically intelligent support line to run in under the posts.
McLeod then scored for the home side, but it was fitting that Warriors should have the final say on what was a fine afternoon’s work. Picking up at the base of the scrum in the 77th minute, it was the sheer fitness levels of Ashe that were as impressive as anything else.
Swatting away the home defenders, he smashed his way over the line from close range with a powerful run, ending up with a bloodied nose for his troubles.
The result capped an excellent weekend for Scottish rugby, with Edinburgh having won in fine style against Newcastle Falcons just 24 hours previously.
If Glasgow can take another five points from Lyon this weekend, then they might well feel like they have one foot in the promised land of the knockout stages.