Townsend says team too easily defeated

Glasgow coach sees red after missed tackles, mistakes and poor finishing against Scarlets

Gregor Townsend aimed a verbal rocket at his damp squibs in the wake of their Bonfire Night disaster.

The Warriors produced their most insipid display of the Pro12 campaign to be snuffed out by the Scarlets in Wales.

Glasgow had the chance to top the table but it was a poor performance, not helped by yellow cards for hooker Pat MacArthur and lock Brian Alainu’uese.

Scarlets were indebted to two tries from man-of-the-match Will Boyde and one from scrum-half Jonathan Evans, with outside-half Rhys Patchell supplying 12 points with the boot. Skipper Peter Horne kicked Glasgow’s penalty.

Townsend, despite his side being well below full strength, insisted there were no excuses for not sparkling.

The frustrated coach said after the 27-3 hammering: “We had done enough in the first half to kick on and win.

“We had a lot of the ball, spent a long time in their 22-zone and had a penalty count of seven to one in our favour.

“We must be more clinical and take our chances, especially when the opposition has a man in the sin bin.”

Townsend reckons the gift of a soft second try to the Scarlets just after the interval was crucial.

He said: “To come back from two scores down is always hard against a side as good as them. And it was no help when we were hit with two yellow cards, missed tackles and made too many mistakes.

“Even on our off-nights we want to be competitive. We want to be difficult to beat, but in this match we were too easy to beat in the second half.”

However, he added: “The guys did work hard. Young Lewis Wynne in particular performed really well in the back row.

“With a large proportion of our squad either on Scotland duty or injured, this is the group of players who will be with us in the next couple of weeks, leading up to the next league match against the Ospreys. It is the task of me and my coaching team – along with the lads – to spend that time working hard to improve for that game.”

Former Scotstoun favourite Dan van Der Merwe emerged as destroyer-in-chief of Glasgow by playing a major part in the first two touchdowns.

And in spite of dominating the opening 40 minutes, all the Warriors had to show for their efforts was a penalty by Peter Horne, who also proved his fitness after a month-long injury lay-off.