Warriors put to sword by Exeter as old boys rub salt into wounds
Glasgow suffered a chastening experience at the hands of European champions Exeter at Sandy Park, with a couple of Scotstoun products getting on the scoresheet for the home side to rub salt in the wounds.
You could not fault the effort of the Glasgow pack but overeagerness meant giving away penalties, where Exeter were both relentless and ruthless.
Six tries told the story of near constant pressure, three of the tries coming directly or indirectly from five-yard lineouts while the backs got in on the act with another three.
Scotland internationals Jonny Gray and Stuart Hogg were among those on the scoresheet with two others, Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-clyne, playing well.
Glasgow’s next opp onents Lyo n g o t o f f t o f l y i n g s t a r t against Gloucester so things will not get much easier for head coach Danny Wilson and his team.
“It was ver y disappointing,” he admitted. “There have been a few of them lately which have been frustrating. In the first half we gave away 10 penalties in the first 30 minutes against a team you are trying to keep out of your 22 because you kill yourself if you do that, as we did today.
“We had 37 per cent territory and you are not going to challenge the European champions with 37 per cent territory, along with the p enalties we gave away. Not scoring a point makes it particularly painful.”
Glasgow were forced into a late change with flanker Tim Gordon’s withdrawal forcing a re-jigging of the back row with Kiran Mcdonald coming in to provide extra ballast.
Exeter are might y hard to keep stopping. The third lineout drive saw No 8 Sam Simmonds go over, converted by brother Joe.
A few minutes later and Exeter had worked their way back to the Glasgow line for another series of forward drives.
Whe n t h e t r y c a me t h e r e was a familiar face attached, Gray, pictured inset, the scorer against his former team.
G l a s g o w c o n c e d e d a
t r y straight after the break with another familiar face doing the scoring. Wing Olly Woodb u r n m a d e t h e l i n e - b r e a k and threw the pass out wide for Hogg to race over.
E x e t e r s o o n c l a i m e d t h e bonus point, back to the familiar territory of the lineout close to the line but with the unfami l i a r s o u rc e o f a Gl a s gow throw sailing over the jumpers and into the arms of Exeter hooker Jack Yeandle.
Ju s t p a s t t h e h o u r and Woodburn was first to a kick through by centre Ollie Devoto for the fifth try.
There was still time for Exeter after the 80 minutes had passed, Jonny Hill scoring and Simmonds converting for a perfect six out of six. Scorers: Exeter: Tries – S Simmonds, Gray, Hogg, Yeandle, Woodburn, Hill. Cons – J Simmonds (6).
Exeter: S Hogg; O Woodburn, H Slade, O Devoto, T O'flaherty; J Simmonds, J Maunder; A Hepburn, J Yeandle, H Williams, J Gray, S Skinner, D Ewers, J Kirsten, S Simmonds. Subs: L CowanDickie for Yeandle 56, B Moon for Hepburn 56, M Street for Williams 56, J Hill for Skinner 61, R Capstick for Ewers 65, S HidalgoClyne for Maunder 54, H Skinner for Hogg 65, I Whitten for Slade 61.
Glasgow: G Bryce; T Seymour, N Grigg, S Johnson, L Jones; P Horne, A Price; O Kebble, G Turner, Z Fagerson, R Harley, S Cummings, K Mcdonald, M Fagerson, R Wilson. Subs: G Stewart for Turner 37, A Seiuli for Kebble 54, E Pieretto for Z Fagerson 67, H Bain for Harley 75, Ioane for Wilson 64, J Dobie for Price 60, B Thomson for Horne 35, H Jones for L Jones 54, L Jones for Seymour 75.