Nakarawa’s wizardry is huge bonus for Warriors
World-class second-row leone Nakarawa celebrated his first game at scotstoun since he returned to the club from racing 92 with a piece of magic that helped secure a bonus-point win for Glasgow Warriors.
Needing a fourth try for the bonus point, the man mountain somehow managed to shrug off three Zebre defenders who tried to drag him to the ground.
He then managed to get a superb offload under pressure away to allow his fellow Fijian Mesu dolokoto to score the first of his two tries on his debut.
The try that was made in Fiji was one of the highlights for the Warriors, who scored eight tries in total, with scrum-half George Horne getting two of them.
Nakarawa was the pick of the bunch, showing up well in both defence and attack. His famous offloads featured heavily, with the Zebre defence struggling to contain him.
Warriors scrum-half George Horne admitted a half-time roasting from head coach dave rennie had spurred his team on.
The Warriors had built up a 14-0 lead after just ten minutes but let it slip and found themselves down 17-14 after half an hour. although they went in at the break 21-17 up, they were met with an angry rennie in the dressing room.
‘We took a bit of stick at half-time for compounding errors that let them back into the game,’ said Horne. ‘It was not easy kicking into that wind but we got a bit of a speaking to at half-time and did better in the second half.
‘That was a massive win as we had let ourselves get a bit behind the top three in our conference table and we know every game is a must-win now.’
rennie admitted he was pulling his hair out at Glasgow’s first-half showing.
‘I was not happy in the dressing room and irate is probably a far too nice way to put things,’ said rennie. ‘But we got the response we wanted.’
Glasgow made the perfect start, scoring two tries within the first ten minutes. The first came from a well-worked move started by stafford Mcdowall. He found Nick Grigg, who made some hard yards before playing in George Horne for his sixth try in six Glasgow appearances. His brother Peter put over the conversion.
Warriors quickly increased their lead. Nakarawa picked the ball up after it was recycled by Glasgow at the breakdown. Grigg was involved again as was Tommy seymour before George Turner played a sublime offload to Matt Fagerson, who burst through two tackles to score. Peter Horne put over the extras.
Zebre thought they had scored after 12 minutes but referee Joy Neville, after consulting the TMo, rightly ruled that Fagerson had held fly-half Michelangelo Biondelli up over the line.
Three minutes later, the visitors got on the scoreboard from another forward drive that saw prop daniele rimpelli bulldoze his way over the line. Fly-half Biondelli secured the extras.
Zebre were in the ascendancy and when George Horne was penalised for an offence at the breakdown, Biondelli put over a penalty with 26 minutes gone.
Biondelli was then injured and was replaced by Marcello Violi.
Five minutes before the break, a lost Glasgow line-out helped put Zebre ahead. Grigg was caught trying to mark two men, allowing Junior laloifi to make a great break. He fed Violi, who scored and then put over the conversion to give Zebre a three-point lead.
George Horne then put his side back in front with a try after good work by Turner. The scrum-half picked up an offload but showed great strength to touchdown under pressure. a Peter Horne conversion increased the lead going into half-time.
Five minutes into the second half, Turner went off for an HIa, which gave dolokoto his Glasgow debut. Just over a minute later, he scored a try after Nakarawa got an offload away to his fellow Fijian to score. Peter Horne took care of the extras.
Glasgow increased their lead when Peter Horne’s cross-kick found dTH van der Merwe, who went in for the try. Peter Horne secured the conversion.
Warriors got a sixth try after George Horne was illegally stopped when he was going in for a certain try. He was halted by a high tackle from laloifi, who was shown a yellow card. after watching the incident on the big screen and consulting the TMo, Neville awarded Glasgow a penalty try.
a 60-metre break from Jamie dobie then led to Tom Gordon going over for the try. ruaridh Jackson put over the conversion.
Pierre Bruno earned Zebre’s third try, converted by Violi.
Then dolokoto capped a perfect debut by going over for his second try with three minutes remaining. Jackson put over the conversion.
SCORERS: GLASGOW — Tries: G Horne (2), Fagerson, Dolokoto (2), Van der Merwe, Gordon, Penalty. Cons: P Horne (5), Jackson (2). ZEBRE — Tries: Rimpelli, Violi, Bruno. Cons: Biondelli, Violi (2). Pen: Biondelli.