Glasgow gain a little re
WARRIORS 3 SARACENS 13 Scotstoun men prove their quality but naive moments show a work in progress
Russell he had a difficult first quarter as Saracens applied a level of pressure he has not previously experienced and he was also unlucky that the touch-judge crucially failed to notice that he had forced Saracens centre Alex Lozowski into touch during the build-up to the game’s opening score.
That move was to prove the only try of the match, flanker Michael Rhodes ultimately claiming the touchdown, England playmaker Owen Farrell adding the conversion from wide on the left, then sending over a penalty soon afterwards to generate the gap would remain the difference between the teams at the end.
Farrell and Hastings were to exchange penalties later in the half to make it 13-3 at both the interval and at the end of the match following a scoreless second half.
What was perhaps the most crucial period of play came in the dying moments of the first, however, playing going close to five minutes into injury time as Glasgow repeatedly opted to kick to touch when awarded penalties as they pounded at the Saracens defence on their goal-line. England lock George Kruis eventually saved the situation for his side when he stole the ball at a ruck and while Glasgow immediately regained the ball and sent DTH van der Merwe over the line, they had done so illegally.
The mocking way in which another of the visitors’ England international forwards, Maro Itoji, joined in the Glasgow celebrations after the flanker, who was subsequently to receive the man-of-the-match award, realised before the home players had, that the decision had gone against them, was less than savoury, but it did speak to the edgy nature of proceedings and in turn represented