Glasgow Warriors 21-10 Sharks: Hosts stay in United Rugby Championship play-off hunt with victory

Kyle Steyn (bottom) scored Glasgow's third try

Glasgow Warriors kept their United Rugby Championship play-off hopes on track with victory over the Sharks at Scotstoun.

First-half tries from George Horne, Max Williamson and Kyle Steyn put Glasgow in control, with Dan Jooste crossing for the visitors.

Ntuthuko Mchunu reduced the arrears with another Sharks try and Glasgow were foiled in their attempts to turn a comfortable lead into a bonus-point win.

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Glasgow, who head to Italy next week to take on Zebre, started on the front foot and, while Steyn was brought down inches from the line, Horne's quick tap penalty in the next play caught out the Sharks defence and the little scrum-half burrowed his way over.

With Glasgow motoring forward again, Jack Dempsey looked like he had taken the wrong option when he ignored a huge overlap out wide to carry into contact, but he offloaded wonderfully to the onrushing Williamson to dive over.

The South African side responded when Jooste peeled off the back of a maul to wrestle his way to the line.

However, Glasgow struck again in the final play of the half with Steyn ghosting through to score and give his side clear daylight on the scoreboard at 21-5.

Glasgow knew one more score would bring the try bonus point, but it was Sharks who struck first in the second-half when Aphiwe Oyantyi's sumptuous offload gave Mchunu a free run to the whitewash.

The match descended into a stop-start mess with players going down injured all over the place.

Among those was Oli Kebble, who came off the bench for his 100th Warriors appearance only to hobble back off a few minutes later.

Glasgow held on for the win in relative comfort but never really threatened to find that fourth try and the bonus point.

With the race for a top four - and ideally top two - likely to be decided by fine margins, leaving that point behind could prove crucial in the final shake-up.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith: "Very happy with the win. To keep on winning at Scotstoun is fantastic, it helps with the morale. We're probably disappointed that we weren't as clinical as we can be.

"We are frustrated [not to get the bonus point], but this team is still evolving and still needs to get a lot better if we want to compete at the business end."

Line-ups

Glasgow Warriors: Rowe, Steyn, McDowall, Tuipulotu, Cordero, Jordan, G Horne, McBeth, Matthews, Z Fagerson, Williamson, Cummings, M Fagerson, Venter, Dempsey.

Replacements: Hiddleston, Kebble, Sordoni, Manjezi, Miller, Gordon, Dobie, Thompson.

Sharks: Chamberlain, Keyter, Koster, F Venter, Dyantyi, Bosch, Williams, Mchunu, Jooste, Jacobs, Rahl, Grobler, Mavesere, L Labuschagne, Hatton.

Replacements: Mbatha, Mona, Koch, van Heerden, Tshituka, Wright, Masuku, Hooker.

Referee: Federico Vedovelli (FIR)

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