SCOTT FINDS IT SO TRYING!
Late drama compounds Glasgow’s pain as Cummings counts the cost of poor display
Even pulling on his bright red Christmas jumper complete with Santa Claus and his reindeers on the front couldn’t lighten the mood of Glasgow Warriors second row Scott Cummings after the defeat to La Rochelle.
He may have been heading to a Saturday night out with his team-mates, but the look on his face made it clear it would take a lot to get the party started.
Cummings thought he had become the hero for Warriors with a last-minute try that would have tied the scores at 12-12, with an Adam Hastings conversion attempt to come.
Unbeknown to him as he celebrated, his moment of glory was about to be denied. Referee Wayne Barnes, who failed earlier in the second half to award a penalty try to Glasgow after nine straight La Rochelle penalties on their own line, had called play back.
One look at a replay of Cummings’ touchdown on the big screen told its own story and led to a collective groan from the home crowd at Scotstoun.
It was clear that Matt Fagerson had led with his arm into the face and throat of replacement prop Dany Priso before the ball reached Cummings.
A justified red card was awarded and the try ruled out. victory for La Rochelle and a painful defeat for the Warriors.
‘Adam was getting on with the conversion when Wayne Barnes went to check something,’ said Cummings. ‘Matt went for the fend and he just unfortunately caught him.
‘I was gutted it wasn’t a try but I think it was more our performance in general than what happened at the end that lost us the match. We could have played a lot better and won the game. That’s what we are upset with.’
He was spot-on. Glasgow were architects of their own downfall in a game they really should have won. This was a naive Warriors performance where leaders were posted missing and too many bad tactical decisions made.
In a game made for sticking the ball up your jumper and going through the forwards, they tried to spin it wide far too often. It was a tough night for goal-kicking but keeping the scoreboard ticking over with the occasional three points would have been far smarter than trying for the killer try-scoring pass.
The defeat to La Rochelle — Glasgow’s second loss in four european games — all but brings an end to their chances of making it into the Heineken Champions Cup knockout stage.
Losses in the back-to-back Pro14 derby matches against edinburgh over the festive period would make matters worse.
‘Those are two big derby games now, home and away against our biggest rivals and everyone will have a point to prove after that performance against La Rochelle,’ said Cummings.
‘We are obviously not where we have been in the past couple of years in the league. We are in a fight and every game matters. We will be going out there against a really good edinburgh team expecting a massive battle, but we will be really up for that.
‘We will learn a lot from that La Rochelle game and we will learn how to play a bit better in wet weather and I’m sure we will bounce back.
‘We need to learn how to be consistent as, in that first half, we didn’t show up.
‘We should have been a bit smarter, playing a bit more territory, but they were good at putting pressure on us.
‘That’s something we need to adapt to and get better at. In the second half, we dominated when we had the wind with us but still didn’t win.’
Glasgow started playing to the conditions with a kick to the corner then a forward drive from a line-out, leading to hooker Fraser Brown going over for an early try which was converted by Hastings.
La Rochelle’s opening score was lucky and ridiculous in equal measure — and even had some of the Glasgow fans laughing at the comical way it came about.
A Brock James penalty attempt was held up in the wind that pushed it closer to the corner flag than the posts. It was in the air for so long it actually allowed the La Rochelle forwards to be in position to win the ball back from James’ kick.
From 20 metres out, they held the ball in well before a beautifullytimed grubber-kick from Brieuc Plessis played in Jules Favre to score in the corner.
There was no luck about their second touchdown after scrumhalf Alexi Bales made a darting run only to be held up just short. Fijian centre Levani Botia was on his shoulder to go under the posts. James got the conversion to put his side 12-7 up at the break.
The second half belonged to Glasgow who managed to make a pig’s ear of all the possession and chances they had.
Referee Barnes didn’t help by failing to award a penalty try against La Rochelle after they gave away a succession of cynical penalties on their own line.
The only player he did yellow card was scrum-half Bales for blatantly kicking the ball out of an advancing Glasgow scrum. The forwards were only five metres short and there was a case for a penalty try in this case, too.
With Cummings’ last-minute touchdown being disallowed, following foul play by Fagerson in the build up that led to his red card, there was not a single score for either side in the second half.
‘I’ve had a look at it and there’s clearly a forearm to the throat,’ said Warriors head coach Dave Rennie. ‘It’s an attempted fend but Matt hasn’t quite got it right.
‘It’s not impossible mathematically but it is going to be tough to qualify now. It’s going to take a big number of points for us to qualify. not only do we need to win against exeter, we probably need five points then we have Sale away.
‘There’s no doubt that we have to win the last two games to give ourselves a chance. We’re not giving up.’