The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Horne leads Warriors to bonus point win
Fly-half’s 17 points help Glasgow to maintain 100% record despite patchy showing
Seventeen points from fly-half Peter Horne ensured Glasgow maintained their impressive start to the season with a bonus point win over Treviso.
Dave Rennie’s side have made a fine start to the 2017-18 Guinness PRO14 and retained their 100% record despite an indifferent performance at Scotstoun.
Expectations were high following a superb win over Munster last week, but the hosts failed to reach the same heights before a stoppage-time try from Sam Johnson claimed a dramatic bonus point after Horne had dominated the game with a faultless performance.
British and Irish Lions player Tommy Seymour made an impact on his return to the side following a busy summer, and it was the winger who opened the scoring from a well-worked set-piece move following a scrappy opening in which the pouring rain got the better of the two sides.
After kicking for the corner, Chris Fusaro broke off a maul before feeding the ball to the backs, and Seymour raced through from the 22 to touch down under the posts.
Marty Banks reduced Glasgow’s lead with a penalty but Rob Harley muscled his way over from five yards at the other end to open up a 14-point advantage once Horne had added another conversion in the 25th minute.
The visitors gained more of a foothold in the game as the first half went on and enjoyed a late period of sustained pressure, going through the phases in the Glasgow 22 before eventually taking another three points to make it 17-9 at the break.
The handling errors continued after the interval, but Angelo Esposito was shown a yellow card eight minutes in for an off-the-ball incident to offer the hosts a chance to pull away, and Horne subsequently kicked another three points.
Glasgow signalled their intentions to finish the game off in the 54th minute, choosing to take a scrum rather than an easy three points on the 22.
The ball found Horne and the fly-half cut inside before spinning out of a weak Treviso tackle and touching down under the posts to take his tally to 17 for the evening.
The Italian outfit struck back immediately, with Marco Lazzaroni touching down in the corner after a drive from a lineout, but Banks saw his kick bounce back off the post.
Federico Ruzza broke through after more good pressure from the visitors and his try pulled the score back to 27-21 to set up a tense finale, only for Johnson to scramble home a vital fourth try.