WARRIORS’ HOME RULE

Bulls slain in first-half Glasgow blitz

IF ONLY Glasgow Warriors could play with this passion and accuracy away from home then they might really become title contenders.

It was the perfect response to last weekend’s disappointing performance and result away to the Ospreys, and head coach Franco Smith will be looking for his team to produce something similar when they head to South Africa for the next fortnight.

This victory was built on a breathtaking first-half performance from the home side and, although they ran out of steam as an attacking force during the second half, they continued to defend like their lives depended on it, meaning that Bulls were never really in the contest.

Warriors raced into a seventhminute lead when they kicked a penalty to the corner then launched a series of close-range attacks, which culminated in Matt Fagerson bustling over.

George Horne added the conversion and Warriors were straight back on the attack from the restart and scored their second just three minutes later.

This time, captain for the night Sione Tuipulotu and Fraser Brown combined to send Sebastian Cancelliere on a 30-yard dash to the line.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic and Bulls pulled seven points back when No 8 Elrigh Louw snaffled possession from Horne as he tried to break from the base of a ruck and Kurt-Lee Arendse streaked home from turnover ball.

It was fast-and frantic stuff, and Warriors counter-punched immediately through Scott Cummings burrowing over from another close-range line-out.

They then rode their luck when a sloppy Tom Jordan clearance was charged down by Ruan Nortje, who then gathered and thundered over the line, only for the Television Match Official to rule that there had been a knock-on when the loose ball ricocheted off a Bulls player before being picked up.

If Lady Luck smiled on the home team on that occasion, then the credit is all Glasgow’s for the way they defended the next Bulls attack, counter-rucking their way to a turnover and then winning a penalty which allowed Jordan to clear the danger.

Bulls were beginning to really turn the screw at this point, and a scrum penalty allowed them to return to the right corner — but, once again, Warriors’ ferocious defence bullied the Bulls into conceding another turnover.

Glasgow’s resilience in defence was rewarded when the pendulum swung back their way five minutes before the break, and they ensured that they would at the very least take a bonus-point out of this match when a moment of audacious individual brilliance from Horne claimed try number four.

Jordan sweeping round and hitting the line hard put Warriors on the front foot near halfway, and, unperturbed by his mishap the last time he tried to break from the base, Horne picked up and scampered through a gap. He made it all way to 10 metres from the Bulls line before some desperate defence pulled him down, only for the livewire scrum-half to bounce straight back to his feet and hurl himself past two defenders for a try which got Scotstoun bouncing.

Warriors started the second half as they ended the first and another breathless passage of play led to try number five when Cancelliere was put into space on the right, stepped past the first defender and then sent Josh McKay over with a brilliant one-handed offload.

Both sides were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Horne and Louw found themselves in a David versus Goliath type tussle on the deck. No punches were thrown but it was pretty unsavoury and unnecessary, so Irish referee Andrew Brace sent the little Scottish scrumhalf and the huge South African No8 for a spell in the cooler.

Replacement hooker Bismarck du Plessis bustled in for Bulls’ second try on the hour mark, and Chris Smith once again added the conversion, which theoretically at least kept the contest alive — but Warriors weren’t for bending.

The hosts had several more attacks which came to nought, and a brilliant cover tackle from Cancelliere on Stedman Gans showed that Warriors were not ready to relax in defence.

It took until the final minute before Janko Swanepoel got another consolation score. By David Barnes