Glasgow dig deep to battle from behind to secure victory at Ospreys
An impressive comeback from Glasgow Warriors saw them overturn a 10-0 deficit to win a hard-fought BKT United Rugby Championship encounter 31-23 in Swansea.
Ospreys had no answer to Glasgow’s formidable line-out drive from which they scored all four of their tries.
Johnny Matthews scored two of them with Sione Vailanu and Allan Dell also on the try-scoring sheet. Duncan Weir converted all four and added a penalty.
Keiran Williams and Reuben Morgan-Williams scored Ospreys’ tries with Jack Walsh kicking three penalties and two conversions.
Ospreys made the better start to take a fifth-minute lead. Glasgow conceded two penalties in quick succession to give the hosts an attacking platform with Williams on hand to drive over from close range.
Ospreys soon came close to scoring a second when Mat Protheroe took advantage of inaccurate handling from the Scots to kick ahead. The wing looked a likely scorer but his second kick forward resulted in the ball running dead before he could ground it.
Williams’ converted try was the only score of a competitive first quarter with stubborn defence from the Welsh Region and poor handling from Glasgow preventing the visitors from drawing level.
Ospreys suffered an injury blow when try-scorer Williams was forced to leave the field to fail an HIA with Weir yellow carded for the high challenge.
Walsh kicked the resulting penalty with George North introduced to replace Williams.
Weir returned from the sin-bin in time to see his side come onto the scoreboard with Matthews crashing over from a line-out drive. Weir’s conversion left Glasgow 10-7 adrift at the interval.
Four minutes after the restart, Matthews repeated the dose to put the visitors in front for the first time.
Glasgow’s pack became increasingly dominant and their line-out drive proved unstoppable with Vailanu crashing over for their third try.
A second penalty from Walsh kept Ospreys in contention before they scored the best try of the night. Skilful passing created space for Luke Morgan to make ground before he kicked ahead with Morgan-Williams winning the race to touchdown.
Walsh converted and succeeded with his third penalty but Weir first kicked a penalty before Dell scored their bonus-point try after Justin Tipuric was yellow carded.
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Free to air is the key to fan expansion. I attended last weeks game at Suncorp (Reds v Blues) and the total cost is prohibitive to most people that wish to attend. Two tickets $130, parking (event day gouging) $75, road tolls $20, dinner beforehand $130, plus some petrol and a beer inside the stadium and a single game starts to cost $300-400. Who can afford that week in week out, I’d love to go more but could only afford this one game to see the Blues, I’d have loved to have seen more NZ teams here but I’d need to stop eating or sell a kidney.
Go to commentsBrumbies are looking good and if they keep their home form up a final is not beyond the realms of possibility. They showed against the Hurricanes exactly how clinical they can be as they absorbed pressure in that contest while also scoring points and applying their own pressure. Reds are well placed as well but need to find consistency. They are building a longer term project with a young side and plenty of quality players. Been surprising to see the strength of Aussie sides this year after the debacle of the world cup. Have NZ sides gotten weaker? Have Aussie sides gotten stronger? A bit of both I would say. Whatever the case its good to see some actual competition between NZ and Aus sides again and thats exactly what the fans wanted and is probably driving better viewership numbers. All of this can only be healthy for Aus and Super Rugby and I hope the Brumbies go all the way.
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