Undisciplined Warriors crash out of Europe after Ioane red

GLASGOW head coach Danny Wilson was once again left to rue his side’s poor discipline as they tumbled out of the Challenge Cup on Friday night away to Montpellier.

With the hour mark approaching at the GGL Stadium, the Scots were very much still in this round of 16 clash.

That was until replacement back row TJ Ioane, who had been on the field for only four minutes, led with his shoulder in a tackle situation and connected with his opponent’s head.

Referee Karl Dickson conferred with his TMO and gave the Samoan a red card.

In the last couple of the months the Warriors’ discipline in general has been poor and that moment ultimately sealed their fate.

Wilson said: “It’s the pattern that is haunting us at the moment. Our discipline is just not good enough. It has to improve dramatically because we can’t be playing big games like this and giving away the number of penalties and cards that we are.”

Warriors led 9-3 leading into the break thanks to three penalties from standoff Adam Hastings to one from opposite number, Saracens loanee Alex Lozowski.

Hooker Guilhem Guirado made the most of a strong attacking maul to score a try just before the interval and when fullback Anthony Bouthier crossed the line just minutes after the restart – both converted by Lozowski – the hosts were 20-9 up.

Montpellier second row Bastien Chalureau was yellow carded after 50 minutes for tackling an opponent without the ball but the Warriors’ strong claims for a penalty try were ingnored. However,

Hastings’ fourth penalty closed the gap to eight points before Ioane, who is on loan from London Irish, was told to leave the field as quickly as he had entered it.

From the resultant penalty Lozowski made no mistake to increase the Montpellier lead to 23-12 as Chalureau returned.

With 18 minutes to go the shorthanded Warriors got another three points through the boot of Hastings and there was then a frantic last ten minutes.

Replacement Ross Thompson kicked a penalty for Glasgow before Lozowski did the same to leave things at 26-18.

Montpellier replacement Martin Devergie saw yellow for a dangerous tackle and Thompson’s second three points made it 26-21. But Warriors centre Nick Grigg was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on and the game finished with 14 versus 13 as Montpellier held on to progress to the last eight to play