Wilson is frustrated despite seeing his men’s Shark hunting
GLASGOW WARRIORS 35 CELL C SHARKS 24 A dominant first 50 minutes by Glasgow Warriors saw them claim the bonus point and build an unassailable lead over their South African opponents.
But head coach Danny Wilson last night admitted to being frustrated by how his team fell out of the match during the final half-hour.
The turning point seemed to be the decision to chalk off what had originally appeared to be a perfectly good try by centre Sione Tuipulotu in the 49th minute, which would have made 42-10.
Sharks dominated the remainder of the match and picked up two consolation tries through Thomas Du Toit and Ntuthuko Mchunu which gave the final scoreline a complexion which flattered the visitors.
“I thought the first 50 minutes was outstanding,” said Wilson. “We played some really good rugby and scored some great tries.
“Had that try been allowed on 50 minutes, I think we could have scored again and found another gear, but it was disallowed and for some reason the wind went out the game.
“There were loads of stoppages, loads of delays, loads of watching the screen. Then we made some changes, which was the right time to make them, and slowly but surely the momentum seemed to disappear.
“On top of that, we fed them a couple of times to get field position because we couldn’t seem to get down the other end of the pitch,” he added.
“They’ve got some good players, they’re dangerous, so credit to them for working their way back into it when they were really dead and buried with us having scored five tries on 50 minutes.
“They could have rolled over but they didn’t. “
Overall, Warriors could definitely take more positives than negatives from the game, which was their first win of this United Rugby Championship campaign following their narrow defeat away to Ulster in round one.
“I don’t want to be too negative about the way it drifted away, we should be positive about a bonus point win against a side we don’t know a lot about but which has a lot of talented players,” he added.
“That first 50 minutes is up there with the best we’ve played since I’ve been here. To be as dominant as we were makes it the best we’ve played. It’s a template for how we want to play.”
Warriors raced into a thirdminute lead with a clever offload by No. 8 Jack Dempsey and searching kick ahead from winger Rufus Mclean establishing the field position for stand-off Ross Thompson to dot down under the posts.
Co-captain Ryan Wilson peeled off the back of maul and burrowed over for try number two, followed by Jamie Bhatti marking his first start since returning to the club this summer by claiming his firstever try in professional rugby.
The visitors rallied briefly, and they got on the scoreboard through a close-range try from second-row Le Roux Roets.
But Warriors had the bonuspoint wrapped up before halftime when a long passage of continuity play culminated in Mclean sending full-back Cole Forbes in for the try.
Sharks full-back Curwin Bosch kicked three points from a scrum penalty just before the break, but already it looked like an exercise in damage limitation for the visitors.
The second half started brightly for the Warriors with Forbes claiming his second – and his team’s fifth – try of the match just three minutes after the restart.
Thompson kicked the conversion to make his record off the tee for the day five from five.
But then came the disallowed try, and things fell away from there.
BENETTON 28 EDINBURGH 27 Edinburgh came within seconds of claiming a second five-point win in as many games in the United Rugby Championship yesterday – only to see victory snatched away from them.
Benetton substitute Leonardo Marin scoring a drop-goal with the last kick of the match.
Mike Blair’s side were 11 points ahead at one stage in the first half, and they led by nine points early in the second 40.
They played some excellent attacking rugby too, with scrumhalf Ben Vellacott putting in another outstanding display and scoring two of their four tries.
But they were simply unable to kill the Italians off in the match at Treviso’s Stadio Monigo, and in the end had to make do with two losing bonus points – one for the narrow defeat and the other for the four tries, with front-row forwards Willem Nel and Stuart Mcinally touching down either side of Vellacott’s brace.
Stand-off Jaco van der Walt added seven points with two conversions and a long-range penalty which put his team back in front late in the game after Benetton had rallied.
But the home side – who had been reduced to 14 men for ten minutes in the second half when replacement hooker Giacomo Nicotera was yellow-carded for obstructing Darcy Graham off the ball – still managed to have the last word.
“Pretty gutted,” was head coach Blair’s verdict. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game but didn’t do it. We let them back into the game, which was disappointing.
“When we got our game going we looked very strong on the ball, very strong in defence, but we just need to get that
consistency and get that going throughout the full 80 minutes.
“Benetton did well to get back into it and it was an excellent kick at the end for the win – but we gave them that opportunity.
“We should have got the win today. This is about everyone understanding with three or four minutes to go we have to make sure we win this game.”
They certainly should have been able to see the game out in the last few minutes. But if they had cut down on the error count they might also have had the win wrapped up some time before then, as they were on top
for much of the contest.
Benetton took an early lead through hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi, but Edinburgh hit back through Nel’s close-range touchdown and van der Walt’s conversion put them in front.
A Tomas Albornoz penalty made it 8-7 to the home side, but then came Vellacott’s two tries, the first of which was converted by the stand-off.
That put the visitors 11 points up, but perhaps crucially given the way the game panned out, Benetton replied before the break when winger Monty Ioane collected a punt to the corner
and touched down. Albornoz’s conversion cut Edinburgh’s lead to 15-19 at the break.
Mcinally’s unconverted try was the first score of the second half and might have been the signal for the Scots to take charge. But Benetton were far from finished, and closed to six points when Marin knocked over a simple penalty
Then Lucchesi powered over for his second try, and Marin’s conversion put his team back in front.
That van der Walt penalty restored Edinburgh’s lead, but Marin had the last laugh.