WARRIORS SHOW TRUE GRIT TO SEE OFF SALE

European Champions Cup Rugby

AT one stage in the first half, this felt like it might prove to be one of those occasions when you need two hands to count the Glasgow Warriors tries, such was their superiority.

By the end of this Heineken Champions Cup opener, however, the Glasgow faithful had to watch the match through the cracks in their fingers.

Make no mistake, a win is a win — and nobody at Scotstoun will be of a mind to complain about a victorious start to this season’s European campaign.

But how the Warriors had to work for this victory against Sale Sharks. After dominating the first hour of the match, they spent the final 20 minutes clinging on by their fingertips.

How they scored a total of just 13 points, all of which came in a first half of unrelenting possession and territory, only they will know.

Warriors could easily have been out of sight by the time the English Premiership side mounted a late comeback.

George Horne was electric at scrum-half, Adam Hastings classy and composed outside him in the No10 jersey, Matt Fagerson powerful and dynamic in the back row, with his brother Zander a mighty presence in the scrum.

For all the positives, though, head coach Dave Rennie admitted afterwards that his team had made this encounter far more nervy than it needed to be.

Surviving a scare and living to tell the tale is all part of how a team grows and matures, with the next step for Glasgow being a trip down to Sandy Park to face Exeter Chiefs on Saturday.

As is so often the case against English opposition, be it for club or country, Ryan Wilson was like a dog straining at the leash.

It took only a few minutes for the notoriously-combative Glasgow and Scotland back-row to get involved in some off-the-ball fisticuffs with Sale winger Marland Yarde.

With Sale missing their World Cup stars Faf de Klerk, Lood de Jager, Tom Curry and Mark Wilson — all of whom played in the final in Japan — there was a sluggishness to their play in the first half. They barely made it into the Glasgow 22, with a couple of penalties from Hastings putting the home side 6-0 ahead just before the half-hour.

Glasgow’s dominance then found greater reward in the 35th minute when DTH Van der Merwe applied the finish to a flowing team move to score what proved to be their only try of the match.

After some good work by George Horne and a clever offload from Sam Johnson, Van der Merwe raced in to touch down in the corner, with Hastings adding the extras to put Glasgow 13-0 up.

Given how non-existent Sale had been, at that stage it seemed like a bonus point was Glasgow’s for the taking. They almost put the game to bed in the 55th minute when Van der Merwe nearly latched on to a chip from Hastings, only for the bounce of the ball to evade him.

But Sale were now growing into the match. Their director of rugby Steve Diamond wasted no time in ringing the changes shortly after half-time as the Sharks looked to offer more bite.

Among the cavalry was Chris Ashton, the former England winger and the all-time top try scorer in the history of European rugby with 54 tries. When the breakthrough came, it was not the prolific Ashton, but the replacement prop Coenie Oosthuizen who powered past four Glasgow players to score from close range on 61 minutes.

The conversion from AJ MacGinty reduced the deficit to six points and it was game on.

Sale were now within a converted try of victory. Glasgow were rattled and there was a fluency to the visitors that had been lacking during the opening period.

But the home defence held firm and it was job done.