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Glasgow get the better of Benetton on wet night at Scotstoun
By PA
Glasgow overcame the rain and some determined opposition to pick up a hard-fought 13-3 victory over Benetton which lifts them to second in the United Rugby Championship table.
They will drop back down to third if Ulster get a result at the Dragons on Sunday, but Danny Wilson’s side have now won five URC matches on the bounce – the last three without their front-line internationals.
The first half was a cagey affair. An early exchange of penalties between Glasgow’s Domingo Miotti and Tomas Albornoz of Benetton made it 3-3 with just six minutes played.
Home winger Rufus McLean thought he had claimed the first try of the match when he hacked a loose ball into the in-goal area and then outstripped Benetton’s cover defence.
But referee Frank Murphy viewed the video replay and decided that the ball had not been properly grounded.
Warriors kept their foot on the gas, and full-back Ollie Smith showed McLean – his flatmate – how to finish off a try a few minutes later, showing impressive strength to shrug off three tackles on his way to the line. Miotti could not manage the conversion.
Smith threatened again for the hosts when he broke from deep, but he was tackled before he managed to release the support runners on both his left and right, so the chance was lost.
Benetton dominated possession and territory during the final 10 minutes of the first half without really putting Warriors under real pressure.
The closest they got to scoring during that period was an audacious drop-goal attempt from halfway by winger Rhyno Smith which floated to the left of the posts.
Warriors claimed their second try of the match when Jack Dempsey muscled over just before the hour mark, five minutes after an excellent kick into the corner by replacement stand-off Ross Thompson had put the home side on the front foot.
With rain teeming down conditions were tough, and both teams struggled to assert themselves in an attacking sense.
Warriors had more control and enjoyed another lengthy spell in their opponents’ 22, but they could not make it count any further on the scoreboard.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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