Warriors profit from Connacht's mistakes

RABODIRECT PRO 12 Warriors 27 Connacht 17:CONNACHT'S SLACK stewardship of the ball proved costly last night at Scotstoun where an alert Glasgow Warriors side profited from the visitors' mistakes to run in four tries for a bonus point victory in round four of the RaboDirect Pro12 League.

The Galway side, guilty perhaps of playing a limited game, also found it difficult to contain the scoring exuberance of Canada winger DTH van der Merwe and his Scotland counterpart Sean Lamont who accounted for three of the Glasgow tries.

Glasgow’s dynamic start brought quick results as third choice outside half and former Melrose player Scott Wight put his side into the lead with a well-struck penalty goal with a minute of play gone.

A crunching tackle from number eight, Eoin McKeon, on DTH van der Merwe signalled stiff resistance from Connacht but the visitors were soon in further arrears after scrum half Kieran Marmion’s kick was charged down allowing Glasgow to launch an attack which ended with Scotland wing Sean Lamont forcing his way over for an unconverted try.

Lamont proved to be a further thorn in Connacht’s side as the Warriors used turnover ball to launch a long-range attack. But instead of taking on the defence, Lamont this time slipped a ‘back-door’ pass to Peter Murchie to give the Glasgow full back a run in for his side’s second try, this time converted by Wight for a 15-0 lead.

Connacht were unlucky to lose skipper Gavin Duffy with a leg injury, but a fightback proved fruitful as winger McCrea followed up a clever grubber kick from outside half Matthew Jarvis to score under the posts. Jarvis adding the extra points.

Connacht then ended the first half with a penalty goal from Jarvis to leave the visitors just 10-15 in arrears at the break. That prompted an attacking mindset from Connacht, who came close to scoring when George Naoupu chased a kick ahead only for Glasgow scrum half Henry Pyrgos to win the race for the ball.

Then after Connacht had failed to deal with a high ball, Glasgow winger DTH van der Merwe pounced to score under the posts leaving Wight with an easy conversion kick. But from the restart Glasgow turned over ball rather cheaply to give Connacht prop Nathan White an easy run to the line and a similarly easy conversion for Jarvis to bring back the gap to just five points.

But just as Connacht seemed to be contesting the game, Glasgow struck decisively with a bonus point try from Van der Merwe, the score coming from turnover ball, a half break by replacement outside half Ruairidh Jackson and excellent support work from Murchie, whose pass put Van der Merwe in the clear for his second score and the final points of the match.

GLASGOW WARRIORS: P Murchie; S Lamont, A Dunbar, P Horne, DTH van der Merwe; S Wight (R Jackson 57), H Pyrgos; R Grant (G Reid 67), D Hall (F Gillies 57), M Low (M Cusack 67, T Swinson (A MacDonald 57), A Kellock, J Eddie, J Barclay, R Wilson.

CONNACHT: G Duffy (J Carty 27); J Loxton, R Henshaw, D McSharry, M McCrea (M Fifita 57); M Jarvis, K Marmion (D Moore 65); B Wilkinson (D Buckley 61), A Flavin, N White, G Naoupu, D Gannon, J O'Connor (M Swift 59), W Faloon, E McKeon (M Kearney 70).

Referee: A Rolland(IRFU).