Tuipulotu inspires Glasgow to win over Stormers

Johnny Matthews heads for the Stormers line en route to scoring for Glasgow Warriors

United Rugby Championship

Stormers (7) 17

Tries: Willemse, Du Plessis Cons: Libbok (2) Pen: Libbok

Glasgow Warriors (7) 28

Tries: Matthews, Tuipulotu, Rowe, Venter Cons: Hastings (2), Jordan (2)

Sione Tuipulotu capped off a landmark week with a superlative showing against Stormers as Glasgow powered to a bonus-point win in South Africa.

Franco Smith's side were looking to bounce back after a narrow loss to Sharks last week.

Tuipolotu, named Scotland captain by Gregor Townsend for the autumn internationals, duly confirmed his leadership credentials by scoring a try and setting up two more in an impressive second-half showing.

A scrappy opening period meant neither side found a breakthrough until the dying moments of the first half.

Stormers thought they had taken an early lead when Leolin Zas charged on a Manie Libbok kick, only for the TMO to rule it out for a knock-on.

There were no doubts over their successful effort, though, as excellent passing saw Warrick Gelant bursting from wide, before offloading to Damien Willemse to ease the ball over the line.

But with Libbok sin-binned for a knock-on approaching the break, Glasgow took advantage of their numerical advantage.

Johnny Matthews capitalised via the maul to touch down, before Adam Hastings levelled the scores from his boot.

If the first half had been an attritional experience, the second half was anything but, as Glasgow opened the taps and started to show off.

Tuipulotu put the visitors ahead, collecting a neat kick from Seb Cancelliere to find the corner.

Dan du Plessis dragged Stormers back into the game, receiving a long pass from Libbok before cutting inside, with Libbok's conversion bringing them level.

Glasgow saw a Cancelliere try chalked off for a forward pass, but soon afterwards Kyle Rowe restored their lead, collecting a pass from Tuipulotu and kicking through a narrow channel before powering past the defence to dive on to the loose ball.

Henco Venter then extended the lead, claiming a bonus point for Glasgow, after Matthews cut through the Stormers defence.

The recycled ball came to Venter to power over and wrap up a big win for the Warriors.

Line-ups

Stormers: Gelant, Nel, Du Plessis, Willemse, Zas, Libbok, De Wet, Harris, Venter, Malherbe, Schickerling, Van Heerden, Theunissen, Dixon, Morabe.

Replacements: Dweba, Lyons, Fouche, Smith, Engelbrecht, Nel, Jantjies, Hartzenberg.

Glasgow Warriors: McKay, Cancelliere, Jones, Tuipulotu (c), Rowe; Hastings, Horne; Bhatti, Matthews, Talakai, Brown, Gray, M Fagerson, Darge, Dempsey.

Replacements: Hiddleston, Sutherland, Z Fagerson, Cummings, Williamson, Venter, Dobie, Jordan.

Referee: Andrew Brace