Players react to Glasgow Warriors underdog URC title win

Captain Kyle Steyn saluted a collective effort after Glasgow Warriors lifted the United Rugby Championship title following a hard-fought 21-16 victory over the Bulls at a sold-out Loftus Versfeld.

Tries from Scott Cummings, George Turner and Huw Jones, all converted by George Horne, saw Glasgow crowned champions for the first time since 2015.

Two Johan Goosen penalties and a conversion to Marco van Staden’s try gave the Bulls – beaten by the Stormers in the 2022 final – a 13-0 lead, with Goosen adding a third penalty in the second half.

Steyn told Premier Sports: “I’m so proud of the guys. Credit to the Bulls, they came out firing in front of their fans and put us under pressure.

“I’m so proud of the belief of my guys, no matter what’s been thrown at us in the last three weeks. No matter what’s been thrown at us, they’ve stuck at it.

“The defensive shift at the end there, some of the hits up front… I’m over the moon.

“To go into half-time 13-7 down, we’d have taken that after the first half we had. That settled us.

“We started the second half really well. We took the intensity up a notch and I’m just chuffed to bits.”

Having beaten the Stormers and defending champions Munster to reach the Grand Final, the Warriors avoided a third loss in the showpiece with a fantastic performance in Pretoria.

Head coach Franco Smith said: “The boys have played well, bought in.

“The half-time chat was easy. We knew we had a good plan for the second half. We let them in through our own errors, like last week. They stuck to the script.

“There’s a lot to be said about the hard edge of the European teams and we brought it tonight, especially in the last 10-15 minutes.

“We defended our line well and applied a lot of pressure to the maul. The boys fronted up to a very strong South African team with 50,000 people behind them. They can be very proud.

“This team shouldn’t be done after tonight. We’ve got the building blocks to go further still.”

Player of the match Matt Fagerson said: “Words cannot describe how we’re feeling right now.

“It’s something we’ve been working towards all season and to do it in a place as historic as this in front of all these fans is, I can’t put it into words.

“I think in the last three or four games, we’ve really taken a liking to knock-out rugby in a sense of we’re not overplaying the ball and when you’ve got a kicker like George Horne, it makes things so much easier.

“We went the hard way but we wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Duncan Weir – the only survivor from the 2015 title-winning squad – was an unused replacement but was full of pride for the team.

He said: “Unbelievable. The fight, the guts, the blood, sweat and tears – we did everything tonight.

“I’m so proud to be part of this team. It’ll be a good party tonight.”