Warriors’ fightback falls short
GLASGOW Warriors were left to rue a capitulation at the start of the second half against Scarlets last night as they slipped to a second successive defeat at the start of the new Pro14 season.
The Warriors had led 9-6 early in the second period at Scotstoun, only to be blitzed by three tries in seven minutes from a rampant Welsh outfit.
Two tries from Brandon Thomson and Stafford McDowall then saw them threaten to fightback from a 16-point deficit, but it wasn’t enough.
Head coach Dave Rennie certainly does not have his problems to seek.
This was only Glasgow’s third home defeat in the Pro14 since Rennie took charge in the summer of 2017, but the need for them to inject some momentum into their campaign is obvious.
Insisting there is no need to panic, Rennie said: ‘Those tries at the start of the second half came from when we actually had the ball, so they basically came from our own errors.
‘The boys showed great character to fight back. At 25-9 we looked dead. But we ended up getting into a position at the end where we could have won it — and maybe should have won it.
‘It’s frustrating because we basically handed the game to our opponents in that spell after half time. We made too many errors.
‘There are 21 rounds in this competition, so there’s certainly no reason to panic. But we’ve got high standards and high expectations of ourselves, so we know we need to be better.’
Thomson was man of the match when these teams met at Scotstoun last December, the fly-half guiding Glasgow to victory by scoring 24 of their 29 points.
It was Thomson who struck the first points last night courtesy of a tenth-minute penalty, with Allan coming off the bench immediately to replace Oli Kebble who went off for a HIA and did not return.
Scarlets ought to have scored the first try on 23 minutes, only to be denied courtesy of a howler from veteran winger Tom James — fumbling the ball when he was almost over the try-line.
Welsh fly-half Dan Jones then levelled with a penalty and put the visitors in front with another just prior to the interval.
It was a scrappy game, with a penalty from Thomson with the last kick of the first half levelling the scoreline at just 6-6 at the break.
Another Thomson penalty put Glasgow ahead early in the second period, only for the Scarlets to turn on the style and the game on its head on 46 minutes.
Centre Paul Asquith charged through a huge hole in the home defence and fed scrum-half Kieran Hardy, who ran in to score before getting up to convert his own try. That was followed by Asquith adding their second try little over 60 seconds later, with Angus O’Brien adding the extras.
And a stunning turnaround continued when a kick and chase from Steff Evans saw the winger notch a third try in quickfire fashion.
Thomson made a good break to score Glasgow’s first try on 65 minutes, scoring all 16 of their points at that stage.
A sublime pass then saw Huw Jones set up McDowall’s try on 73 minutes, but Glasgow had given themselves too much to do. GLASGOW WARRIORS Tries: Thomson, McDowall. Con: Thomson. Pens: Thomson (3). SCARLETS: Tries: Hardy, Asquith, S Evans. Cons: Hardy, O’Brien. Pens: D Jones (2).