Warriors’ guerrillas in the mist bring down the Chiefs
GLASGOW WARRIORS 22 EXETER CHIEFS 7
It was so foggy at Scotstoun last night that this game was in doubt less than an hour before kick-off. But Glasgow Warriors lit the place up with a performance full of purpose, discipline and impressive accuracy given the tricky conditions.
This victory resurrects Glasgow’s Champions Cup campaign after last weekend’s away loss to La Rochelle, and head coach Danny Wilson was bullish afterwards about his team’s chances of making the knock-out phase of the competition.
They really need to target two wins from their final two pool matches next month, against Exeter away and the La Rochelle at home.
“To win against a fully-loaded Exeter side in the manner we did stands as my proudest moment with Glasgow, and as a group our biggest achievement so far,” said Wilson.
“But there’s a lot more to come. We need to get more consistent and do what we did tonight on demand.
“We have to play to our identity which is to play fast. But we also have to be able to be pragmatic, which we managed tonight.
“We had so many opportunities that we didn’t finish, such as that driving lineout at the end of the first half. But we showed real character when it got to 12-7 and we went down the other end and scored from a driving line-out to finish the game off.
“So, I’m really pleased that we won that game comfortably, and were pretty dominant. But there was more we could have done.”
Warriors started with real intent, setting the tone for the whole match, and edged their way into a 13th-minute lead through a Ross Thompson offside penalty from almost directly on front of the posts.
However, they couldn’t build on that narrow advantage during the remainder of the first half despite continuing to dominate possession and territory.
It did look like George Turner was going to claim the game’s first try when he burst from a maul and charged for the line just before the break, but a lastgasp tackle from Tom O’flaherty brought the rampaging hooker down just inches short of glory
Play was brought back for a previous penalty, giving Warriors another chance to extend their lead, but they lost control of possession at the line-out.
Warriors started the second half as they finished the first, with Sione Tuipulotu carrying well on three occasions before a sideentry penalty gave Thompson a chance to edge the hosts further ahead – but his effort rebounded off the left post.
The Warriors stand-off didn’t let that shake his focus, and when Exeter gave away another penalty two minutes later by going off their feet at a ruck, he fired home the three points.
He was on target again to make it 9-0 after a collapsed Exeter scrum just past the 50-minute mark and made it 12-0 when another scrum penalty was coughed up by the visitors on 59 minutes. Sam Simmonds finally got Exeter off the mark when he burrowed over after a relentless period of pressure, with brother Joe kicking the conversion.
But Warriors kept their cool and Thompson kicked his fifth successful penalty of the night to stretch the home side’s lead to more than a converted try.
A last-minute Johnny Matthews try, converted by Duncan Weir, sealed the win.
“Rugby is a great game because you tend to win the games you deserve to win, and that’s what it felt like today,” conceded Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter.