United Rugby Championship
Glasgow Warriors (19) 36
Tries: Hiddleston 2, Darge, McKay, Stephen Cons: Horne 4 Pens: Lancaster
Connacht (7) 19
Tries: Jansen, Ioane 2 Cons: Frawley 2
Glasgow Warriors ran in five tries against Connacht to claim a bonus-point win and continue their unbeaten start to the United Rugby Championship season.
After last weekend’s draw with Ulster at Scotstoun, Warriors were gunning for their first home win of the campaign.
But it was Connacht who started on the front foot and number eight Sean Jansen found his way to the line to put the visitors in front.
The early stages were played almost exclusively in the home side’s half, but on their first real foray into opposition territory Warriors sent a rolling line-out maul thundering over the Connacht line, with Gregor Hiddleston touching down.
The game was a little bitty, with neither side really getting their attacking game firing, so it was no surprise when Glasgow’s second try came courtesy of another driving maul. Rory Darge was on hand to finish it off this time, and George Horne knocked over the conversion to put Warriors into a five-point lead.
The home side had exposed Connacht’s weakness and were exploiting it ruthlessly. Prop Sam Illo was sent to the sin-bin for halting yet another rolling maul illegally as it headed for the visitors’ line.
He need not have bothered as Glasgow simply kicked to the corner again, set the maul in motion and Hiddleston was left to touch down for his second try of the night to send them in at the break 12 points to the good.
If the first three Glasgow tries were all about power, the fourth was down to pure precision. Dan Lancaster found Jamie Dobie with a pinpoint cross-field kick and the wing gathered and cushioned a little grubber perfectly into the path of Josh McKay to go over for the bonus-point try.
Connacht were not quite done yet and Josh Ioane scored to give the visitors a little hope at 26-14.
That belief grew stronger when Ioane went over in the corner to make it a one-score game.
Connacht’s momentum was checked when substitute Josh Murphy was sent to the sin-bin for a high shot on Seb Stephen and Glasgow punished them almost immediately with another rolling line-out maul, Stephen himself finishing it off to give Warriors some breathing space.
Lancaster popped over a straightforward penalty at the death as Glasgow sealed the maximum five points.