Battling Warriors hunt down Ospreys to keep hopes of top-three finish alive
Glasgow are still in the hunt for a top-three place in Pro14 Conference A after a dramatic victory at Scotstoun last night. Ospreys are still favourites to hold on to third and thus qualify for next season’s Champions Cup, but the Warriors have at least kept their hopes alive.
Ospreys took the lead in the fourth minute with an unconverted try by Morgan Morris after Rob Harley had given away a penalty. An awkward start then became significantly worse for the home side when the Ospreys were controversially awarded a penalty try after Glasgow full-back Ollie Smith was ruled to have deliberately knocked on deep in his own half and stopped a probable try. Smith was sinbinned into the bargain.
That made it 12-0 to the visitors. Glasgow hit back with a Ross Thompson penalty, but midway through the half a noarms tackle from Aki Seiuli allowed Luke Price to restore his team’s 12-point lead from in front of the posts.
Thompson was on target with a penalty after half an hour, then made it three out of three a few minutes later. That made it 9-15 and put a far brighter complexion on the match from a Glasgow point of view at half-time.
The Ospreys upped the tempo at the start of the second half and when full-back Dan Evans burst into the Warriors 22 a try was on the cards. But a tackle from Smith dislodged the ball, and Lee Jones scooped it up and ran almost the length of the pitch to touch down. Thompson converted, and Glasgow were ahead for the first time at 16-15.
Ospreys were far from finished, though, and No 8 Gareth
Evans grabbed a try, which Price converted.
A brilliant kick ahead by Thompson was collected by Rufus Mclean for a score in the right corner. The standoff added the two points to the
winger’s score, and Glasgow were ahead again at 23-22.
The Warriors then went further ahead when Seiuli scored off the back of a lineout. Thompson’s conversion made it 30-22. With ten minutes
left TJ Ioane was sent to the bin for a professional foul, and Price scored from the penalty to reduce the gap to five. But Glasgow had just enough left in the tank to hold on.