A FLYING START
Rennie era opens with a win over Connacht
LEE JONES dotted down the vital second try and Glasgow Warriors kicked off their Guinness Pro14 campaign with victory over Connacht at The Sportsground.
Connacht never took advantage of their chances in the first half and Glasgow bided their time until the second period, where Ali Price and Jones sealed the win.
This Conference A clash looked doomed due to the horrific weather and it was 9-3 at the interval after a 40 minutes dominated by the wind and rain.
Glasgow fell off the pace towards the end of 2016-17 and ended the season with back-to-back defeats against Leinster and Edinburgh.
And having hammered Connacht 41-5 when the sides met in round one last season, Glasgow came away with the win again.
Connacht made the perfect start and forced a mistake and, after the visitors didn’t roll away on time, Jack Carty kicked a second-minute penalty.
These were dreadful conditions in Galway and, after Glasgow worked their way back up the field, Peter Horne drove his relatively easy kick short, when it was caught by the breeze.
Glasgow re-grouped and Horne made amends with his second attempt from the opposite side.
It was 3-3 after 12 minutes and Connacht debutant openside flanker Jarrad Butler went close to a try but his attempt was ruled out by TMO Peter Fitzgibbon.
With the wind at their backs and camped deep in Glasgow territory, Connacht needed to leave with a score and that came by way of another Carty penalty.
Connacht had only ever won once in 15 attempts away to Glasgow in the league and at home they also had a poor record with six victories from 14 games.
And they were facing a Glasgow side minus their much-vaunted British & Irish Lions contingent, but they couldn’t make use of the treacherous conditions.
And it all stemmed from scrum time where the hosts were being demolished on every occasion.
Connacht held their line with a vital penalty when Glasgow strayed offside in the 25th minute but handling errors from both sides meant neither could gain the ascendency.
Cian Kelleher almost got through shortly before the half hour but he kicked the ball out of play.
Even though the error count rose, both teams continued to throw the ball around and neither chose to kick deep for territory.
It was to Connacht’s detriment and they missed out on numerous try-scoring chances before finally Scott Cummings conceded a late penalty and Carty tagged on his third successful kick.
Glasgow reduced Connacht’s lead at the start of the seond half down to just three after six minutes when Horne kicked his second penalty.
The Connacht defence looked shaky and Horne again found space behind the cover, before feeding Price for the crucial Glasgow try in the 49th minute.
It was a massive moment in the game and Horne’s conversion compounded the error for the hosts as Glasgow led 13-9.
Connacht could have given up at that stage, but they pulled through a difficult period to earn a penalty in the Galway 22, and Carty kicked his fourth to bring the deficit back to the minimum.
There were 19 minutes remaining but Connacht failed to find a way back and Jones settled it with his try in the corner.