Darge injury takes shine from eight-try Glasgow win over Cardiff

Glasgow bounced back from their opening-round defeat at Benetton by racking up eight tries in a 52-24 bonus-point victory over Cardiff at Scotstoun. A hat-trick of tries from the home team during a ten-minute period with an extra man midway through the first half saw the Warriors build up an unassailable lead.

But it was not all good news for Franco Smith as he took charge of his first home fixture, with Scotland flanker Rory Darge forced off with a serious-looking leg injury early in the match. Cardiff were leading 7-0 through an early Josh Adams try and Jarrod Evans conversion when Thomas Young was yellow-carded for side entry at a ruck on his own line in the 21st minute.

Fraser Brown, Cole Forbes and Matt Fagerson all scored for Glasgow in quick order, with George Horne slotting all three conversions from tricky positions wide on the right to make it 21-7. Warriors then had to endure a spell a man down when stand-off Tom Jordan saw yellow for a high challenge on Adams and an Evans penalty two minutes later following a ruck offence narrowed the gap by three points.

But Glasgow were not prepared to let the numerical disadvantage slow their progress against Cardiff and the home team finished the first half with a flourish when scrum-half Horne dived over from close range to claim the four-try bonus point.

Cardiff started the second half brightly with a try from a lineout maul by Kristian Dacey, but that was as good as it got for Dai Young’s side as Glasgow marched straight back upfield to score try number five when Zander Fagerson surged under the Cardiff posts.

The visitors lost replacement centre Uilisi Halaholo to the sin bin for a high tackle on Brown just two minutes after he came off the bench and the Warriors scored straight after the penalty was kicked to the corner, with Brown claiming his second from a lineout drive. Warriors thought they had scored again when Jordan went over on the left, but referee Chris Busby was persuaded by the TMO to chalk the try off for a forward pass earlier in the move.

It was a bold call because the conversion had already been taken. It was a temporary hold-up for the Warriors and there was no doubt that the next try would stand when Jack Dempsey broke through the middle and sent Tom Gordon over.

Liam Belcher scored a consolation for Cardiff with 10 minutes to go, but the Warriors had the last word with a Stafford McDowall charge down try.