Warriors have kept the home fires burning . . .
Five memorable victories over English opposition
GLASGOW’S overall record in Europe has been infamously poor, but in recent years the Warriors have put together a remarkable streak of results against English sides, writes Alasdair Reid.
In each of the past five seasons they have had a team from England in their pool, and they have beaten them on Scottish soil every time.
Here, we recall how those Glasgow victories happened. Glasgow had not beaten an English side in the Heineken Cup for seven years and they went into this game with only slim hopes of reversing that trend, having lost to Biarritz and Dragons in the tournament’s earlier rounds. However, they had recently moved to the top of the Magners League and their young side – Richie Gray had only just broken through – played with verve and confidence. On a foggy Friday evening at Firhill, they were comfortably the better side, taking control with tries from Max Evans and Bernardo Stortoni late in the first half. Yet the real star of the show was Dan Parks, whose conversion and seven penalties accounted for 23 of the Warriors’ points. Glasgow’s hopes of reaching the last eight of the competition had been pretty much dynamited by earlier losses to Wasps and Toulouse. On top of which, injuries had robbed coach Sean Lineen of a number of top players, but his second-stringers played like men possessed and they would probably have won by a lot more had the muddy Firhill pitch been in better condition. As it was, former Wasp Ryan Wilson turned in a magnificent performance at No.8 – he had only been picked as Johnnie Beattie was ruled out by an administrative error – to take the man of the match award. Although they trailed 10-3 after 10 minutes, Glasgow took the win with a try by Colin Gregor and a conversion and four penalties by Ruaridh Jackson. A nip-and-tuck affair almost from the first whistle, the match was settled in dramatic fashion when, with Bath leading 21-19 and the clock already past the 80-minute mark, Duncan Weir tried a dropped goal from 30 metres out. A Bath defender got a hand to the ball to deflect its flight, but his action also put Richie Gray onside and the giant lock seized his chance to thunder over for the winning try. Earlier, Stephen Donald – a World Cup winner with New Zealand a few weeks earlier, appeared to have clinched it with a penalty for Bath, but Gray’s opportunism, added to an earlier try by Stuart Hogg, gave Glasgow the win they deserved. The Warriors had leaked 50 points against reigning champions Toulon the previous weekend, so this was a vital result in terms of keeping their quarter-final hopes alive. On fire in the RaboDirect PRO12 competition at the time, they seemed hesitant on the European stage, but they still came through to secure a fine win. It was feisty and close throughout, though, and Glasgow only really began to take control in the second half, when tries by Tim Swinson and Tyrone Holmes gave them a comfortable lead. It was cut by a late try from Exeter, but the result was beyond doubt by then.