Warriors put visitors to the sword with ruthless display
they did. Right from the start, there was an intensity about their play and a fragility about the Canada side that did not augur well for the visitors’ chances.
Which is exactly how it panned out in the opening quarter. Canada struggled to retain possession and Glasgow punished them with glee.
The game was only five minutes old when the Scots handed out a lesson in hanging on to the ball through the phases until eventually new Fijian scrum half Nemia Kenatale drove over for the opening score.
It did not take long for Glasgow to double their lead with Peter Murchie taking advantage of a turnover to run the ball back and put Nick Grigg in for the second score.
“It was awesome,” he said afterwards. “First try for the the club, that was good. I dropped the ball once, which got me a bit frustrated, but other than that I felt confident out there on the field with the players inside me and outside me really communicating well. I felt comfortable both on defence and attack.
“I would really like to get more games for the team. Everybody, including me, has worked really hard. It has been a lot of graft but all that has paid off in the pre-season games with everybody looking fit and confident.”
A perfectly placed touch finder from Kiwi fly-half Hagen Shulte set up try number three with the forwards driving the line out over the line and James Malcolm, the hooker, getting the touchdown.
So far, so easy, but to be fair to the young Canada side, they didn’t seem to let it worry them too much and started to come more and more into the game.
If only they could have hung on to the ball – all their promising moves ended with a sloppy pass or missed catch and Glasgow did not have too much trouble coping with everything the throw at them.
Instead of buckling, Junior Bulumaku, the Glasgow wing, set up another home attack with an interception. Two penalties as Canada scrambled back put Glasgow under the visitors’ posts where George Horne, younger brother of Scotland back Peter, tapped and went over on his own.
With Schulte converting all four, Glasgow had a more than comfortable lead at the break and were ready to make wholesale changes in the second half, which did nothing to add to the fluency of the game with most of the newcomers being Premiership and Academy players.
As Canada made changes and started to tire as they reached the end of the third game of their European tour, Glasgow could afford to relax and run through a few moves, with Matt Fagerson, whose older brother Zander is already a Warriors regular, dropping a few hints with the first try of the second half.
He was followed over by Cammy Fenton and Josh Henderson, both on as replacements at hooker and fly-half respectively, and with a final flurry at the death, Henderson and Horne completed the scoring. These guys are hungry for success and the first team know they cannot afford to let their standards drop. Scorers. Glasgow. Tries Kentale, Grigg, Malcolm, Fagerson, Fenton, Henderson, Kelly, Horne Cons Schulte 5, Horne 4 Glasgow Warriors Murchie (C), Bulumakau (Beattie), Grigg (Kelly), Lyle (Kelly, ), Jones (Hughes); Schulte (Henderson), Kenatale (Horne); Allan (Bhatti), Malcolm (Fenton, 41), Rae (Firth), Thompson, Peterson (K McDonald), Hunter-Hill (S McDonald), M Fagerson, McCallum (Taylor) Attendance 1719 visitors could