'Our boys are making Warrior Nation proud', says Smith

Glasgow Warriors enjoyed a comfortable 42-10 victory over Benetton at Scotstoun

Tom English, BBC Scotland chief sports writer

Glasgow took a step up on Friday night against Benetton, says their coach Franco Smith. The Warriors scored six tries and might have had three or four more against a visiting side that had one red card and two yellows over the course of a miserable night.

"We asked for progression this week from last week and we saw that from a technical perspective,” said Smith. "We backed up a good defensive performance from last week with another good defensive performance."

Smith was not happy with the profligate nature of the Glasgow lineout, though. "We missed about six lineouts inside the 22 which is a big work on for us this week. But it's uncommon, it’s something that we can fix."

Glasgow scored early through Kyle Steyn before Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jamie Dobie, Steyn again and Euan Ferrie (the flanker operating on the wing at that point) crossed to wrap up a routine victory and a valuable bonus point.

Benetton's discipline went to pot on the night. At one point they were down to 12 men "I know what's happened there,” said Smith. "They have invested a lot this season. For every international, they've got a very good international player to cover that role and therefore I think they are a little bit desperate to still perform despite the fact that they have got a card down.

"The red card can make a difference, but I still thought we had ascendancy the whole first half. Like last week against Ulster, we had ascendancy in every part of the game. There were moments where we could have taken the game away from them earlier without them being a red card down.

"Our boys applied themselves and they want to make this Warrior Nation proud and they want to hit their straps as soon as they can."