Pro14: Zebre 7-31 Glasgow Warriors - Visitors scrap to bonus-point victory
- Published
Scotland scrum-half George Horne ran in Glasgow's first two scores
Pro14 |
|---|
Zebre (0) 7 |
Try: Bruno Con: Canna |
Glasgow (19) 31 |
Tries: Horne 2, Hastings, Tagive, Frisby Cons: Hastings 2, Jackson |
Glasgow Warriors scrapped to a second straight bonus-point win, beating Zebre to move within two points of third-placed Cheetahs in Pro14 Conference A.
George Horne burrowed over for the opening try then finished a brilliant second before Adam Hastings darted in.
Ratu Tagive secured the bonus-point score six minutes into the second half and home flanker Johan Meyer was sent off for a dangerous shoulder charge.
Zebre struck back through Pierre Bruno but Nick Frisby got a fifth away try.
The win is Warriors' third in six league matches, and after last weekend's 50-0 thrashing of Southern Kings, ensures they begin their European Champions Cup campaign on the back of two bonus-point victories.
Glasgow stay fourth in their conference, with Cheetahs suffering a 30-17 loss at Cardiff Blues later on Saturday.
Winless Zebre remain bottom of the table, with only two points from their six fixtures.
This was a professional Glasgow display against a deeply troubled opponent that can still take a bit of beating on their rutted gluepot of a pitch.
The electric Horne ignited a turgid opening with two typically ruthless finishes. The little scrum-half took a quick-tap penalty and squirmed his way through the bruisers to open the scoring, Giovanni Licata sin-binned for killing the ball in the build-up and Hastings converting.
Then Horne dashed away to cap a glorious first-phase strike play, Fraser Brown rumbling off the back of a line-out before flicking inside to Tagive, who scorched clear off his wing and put his half-back away.
Horne delights in gobbling up these opportunities - the double took his tally to an astonishing 24 tries in 44 Warriors outings.
The pressure kept coming. Tagive, Brown and more of the heavy artillery powered Glasgow into the home 22 again. Hastings dummied and stretched to score and convert for a 19-0 half-time lead.
Adam Hastings stretched to score Glasgow's third try in Parma
Tagive galloped in, wrapping up the bonus point six minutes after the break, a second try in as many matches for the winger on his first start in 20 months.
Things continued to unravel for Zebre, who already look to be heading for a brutal season, when Meyer was sent off for a dreadful flying shoulder to the exposed head of Scott Cummings on the Glasgow line.
But as the hosts wilted, Warriors' discipline deserted them. Bruno scampered in from a rolling maul. Glasgow twice fell short of a fifth try from similar positions, then George Turner went to the bin after a series of breakdown infringements.
The Zebre rally was fleeting. A terrible no-look pass missed its slew of potential recipients and was neatly toed on by Tommy Seymour up the right flank. The full-back controlled the bobbling ball beautifully - right up until he got to the whitewash, when he stumbled over it and let Frisby scoop up and score.
Ruaridh Jackson popped over the extras rounding off a pleasing afternoon's work for Glasgow with the altogether more formidable challenge of Sale Sharks and the Champions Cup awaiting next Saturday.
Zebre: M Biondelli; C Walker, J Elliott, E Lucchin, M Bellini; C Canna, J Renton; A Lovotti, L Bigi, A Tarus, M Kearney, I Nagle (capt), G Licata, J Meyer, D Sisi.
Replacements: M Manfredi, D Fischetti, G Zilocchi, L Krumov, R Giammarioli, M Violi, T Boni, P Bruno.
Glasgow Warriors: T Seymour; R Tagive, K Steyn, S Johnson, DTH van der Merwe; A Hastings, G Horne; O Kebble, F Brown, Z Fagerson, T Swinson, S Cummings, R Wilson (capt), C Fusaro, M Fagerson.
Replacements: G Turner, A Allan, D Rae, K McDonald, T Gordon, N Frisby, R Jackson, H Jones.