Pro12: Zebre 28-33 Glasgow Warriors

Sean Lamont was making his first start of the season

Glasgow moved into the top four of the Pro12 with a hard-earned bonus-point victory over Zebre in Parma.

Tries from wing Sean Lamont and hooker Fraser Brown helped the Warriors lead 18-11 at half-time, Oliviero Fabiani replying for the hosts.

Further scores from Lamont and replacement Leonardo Sarto, against his old club, extended the lead to 30-11.

But tries from Giovanbattista Venditti and Andries van Schalkwyk left Glasgow defending before Rory Clegg's penalty.

The fly-half's fifth successful kick from seven attempts with two minutes left pushed the visitors eight points clear, but Carlo Canna landed his third penalty with the last kick of the game to give the hosts a losing bonus point.

Grigg makes mark for Glasgow

With four Scotland centres - Alex Dunbar, Mark Bennett, Peter Horne and Richie Vernon - on the Warriors' injured list, Nick Grigg took full advantage of a rare start and had a hand in three of the visitors' four tries.

Lamont touched down the opener from close range after Lee Jones was held up, and two Clegg penalties gave a Glasgow an 11-6 lead before Fabiani's try levelled the scores.

Centre Nick Grigg was at the heart of many of Glasgow's best attacks

But Grigg took centre stage before the interval, bursting through the Zebre defence before offloading to Sarto, who was tackled just short.

The 24-year-old's best moment came two minutes from half-time when he picked the ball up on the Warriors' 22 and beat several would-be tacklers on a 90m run before releasing Brown for the second try.

Grigg darted through another gap before offloading to Lamont for his second early in the second half, and then released Sarto for a score on his old stomping ground.

Flanker Matt Fagerson - a late call-up to the starting XV after Corey Flynn was ruled out and Brown reverted to hooker - was earlier sin-binned for a dust-up with Zebre's Johan Meyer, who also saw yellow for the same incident after 32 minutes.

Glasgow took full advantage of Giulio Bisegni's yellow card early on the resumption, scoring two tries in his absence.

But a second Glasgow sin-bin for Rob Harley, when the lock was penalised for pulling down a maul 14 minutes from time, saw the visitors concede a third try and forced to defend manfully in his absence, before eventually eeing the game out.

Post-match reaction:

Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend:

"Zebre played well, they wanted to move the ball. It was a good win for us. It was far from perfect but we're happy with the bonus-point win.

"We didn't see much ball in the second half. The game was a bit disjointed but in general with the ball we looked pretty good.

"Zebre could have gone and won that. We had to defend well and look after the ball."

Zebre: Edoardo Padovani, Kayle Van Zyl, Giulio Bisegni, Tommaso Castello, Giovanbattista Venditti, Carlo Canna, Guglielmo Palazzani; Andrea Lovotti, Oliviero Fabiani, Pietro Ceccarelli, Joshua Furno, George Biagi, Maxime Mbanda, Johan Meyer, Andries van Schalkwyk.

Replacements: Carlo Festuccia, Bruno Postiglioni, Dario Chistolini, Quintin Geldenhuys, Federico Ruzza, Marcello Violi, Thomas Boni, Lloyd Greeff.

Yellow cards: Meyer (32), Bisegni (43)

Glasgow Warriors: Peter Murchie, Sean Lamont, Nick Grigg, Sam Johnson, Lee Jones, Rory Clegg, Ali Price; Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown, Sila Puafisi, Rob Harley, Robert McApline, Josh Strauss, Matt Fagerson, Ryan Wilson (capt).

Replacements: James Malcolm (for Brown, 52) Djustice Sears-Duru (for Reid, 52), Zander Fagerson (for Puafisi, 52), Callum Hunter-Hill (for McAlpine, 53), Lewis Wynne (for M Fagerson, 68), Grayson Hart (for Price, 57), Stuart Hogg (for Grigg, 64), Leonardo Sarto (for Jones, 19).

Yellow cards: M Fagerson (32), Harley (66)