Glasgow claim first away win in nearly a year against Zebre

Glasgow survived an early period of Zebre Parma pressure to emerge with a 45-17 bonus-point victory from their match in Italy.

Warriors were without an away win since January but claimed an ultimately comfortable victory in the Parma rain.

Sintu Manjezi cancelled out Pierre Bruno’s opening try as Glasgow went into half-time with a 10-7 lead, before Sebastian Cancelliere, Stafford McDowall, Johnny Matthews (2) and Domingo Miotti all crossed after the interval.

Two tries from Jacques du Toit were all Zebre could muster in response in the second period, with George Horne turning in an outstanding performance with the boot by kicking 15 points for his side.

Matt Fagerson was yellow-carded as Glasgow came under intense early pressure on their own line, before brother Zander was forced off through injury soon after.

A Chris Cook try was ruled out for obstruction, but the pressure eventually told when Geronimo Prisciantelli’s cross-field kick found Bruno wide on the right to touch down.

Prisciantelli added the extras, but Glasgow were almost immediately level.

Having spent most of the match inside their own 22, Manjezi gathered his own charge down to go over, with Horne splitting the posts with the conversion.

Prisciantelli missed an opportunity to nudge Zebre back in front from the tee on the half-hour mark, and it was Glasgow who had the advantage at the break thanks to Horne’s penalty.

The visitors then took complete control of the encounter early in the second period, with Cancelliere being sent over in the left corner before McDowall picked up a loose ball to dart for the line.

Horne converted both and was on target again when Johnny Matthews crashed over with 12 minutes left to play to bag the bonus point.

Du Toit scored his two tries either side of Miotti’s first in Glasgow colours, but they mattered little in the end as Matthews doubled his own tally and Horne maintained his perfect record from the tee to give the scoreline a convincing gloss and stretch Warriors’ domination of this fixture with a 20th win in 20 meetings.