IT was not particularly pretty but it was exactly what Glasgow Warriors needed. After losing 10 away matches in the URC on the bounce, Franco Smith’s side withstood a physical first-half onslaught from Zebre and then stretched clear after the break for a convincing bonus-point win.
They will face much tougher opposition than Zebre, who have yet to taste victory home or away in the URC this year, but this was an important psychological step forward ahead of next weekend’s European Challenge Cup campaign opener away to Bath.
“Today was not about playing a creative brand, it was about winning first, and we squeezed it out,” said Smith. “We faced a team that was very determined with a couple of fresh guys coming in, and they must have seen our poor record away from home as an opportunity.
“So, they were very well prepared and motivated, and the way we managed that pressure in the first half and the good reaction after our half-time talk is something that we’ll take forward.”
Matt Fagerson was sin-binned on nine minutes for skulduggery against Zebre’s powerful line-out maul, and Warriors suffered further disruption just three minutes later when big brother Zander retired injured.
“When he tried to steal the ball at the breakdown he got cleaned from the front, which meant an over-extension of his hamstring,” explained Smith. “We don’t know at this stage how serious it is – especially with soft-tissue injuries like that, you need a couple of days for the blood to settle and then you get a better image. But I suppose he’ll be out for a bit, at least.”
Despite their early domination, it took until the 19th minute for the hosts to break the deadlock. A powerful home maul narrowed Glasgow’s defence and Geronimo Prisciantelli angled an excellent diagonal towards the right touchline for Pierre Bruno to gather and score.
Prisciantelli added the conversion but the hosts failed to make the most of their lead, and handed Glasgow a route straight back into the match less than a minute later when Chris Cook’s box-kick from the base of a ruck on his own 22 was charged down by Sintu Manjezi, who then got to the loose ball inside the in-goal area first, with George Horne firing home the extra two points to square the contest.
Despite spending most of the first half on the back foot, Warriors went in at the break with a slender lead thanks to a Horne offside penalty, which Smith acknowledged was an important confidence boost at a crucial moment.
Warriors took control of the match early in the second half when Kyle Steyn was involved twice in the lead-up to a Sebastian Cancelliere’s try, and the Warriors captain played a key role again as Warriors stretched further clear on 49 minutes by pressuring Bruno as he attempted to gather Horne’s box-kick, leading to the ball ricocheting into Stafford McDowall’s hands and the big centre cantered home unchallenged from 30-yards.
Warriors claimed the bonus point with 13 minutes left to play, when a period of pressure close to the home line culminated in replacement hooker Johnny Matthews picking up from the base and diving over, with Horne once again converting.
With Franco Smith Junior coming off the bench for Zebre to play against his old man’s team, the hosts scored their second try with just under 10 minutes to go, when Jacques Du Toit got the ball down off the back of a powerful line-out maul, and the replacement hooker struck again six minutes later through a similar strategy.
Sandwiched between those two late Zebre tries was Warriors’ fifth score, thanks to a tidy take-and-give from Manjezi which sent replacement stand-off Domingo Miotti over on the left, and the visitors had the final word when Matthews burrowed over for his second try of the match in injury time.
Horne maintained his 100 per cent record off the tee by slotting the touchline conversion in the final flourish to his man-of-the-match performance.
Scorers, Zebre – Tries: Bruno, Du Toit 2. Con: Prisciantelli.
Glasgow – Tries: Manjezi, Cancelliere, McDowall, Matthews 2, Miotti. Cons: Horne 6. Pen: Horne. Zebre Parma: L Pani; P Bruno (J Van Wyk 50), E Cronjé (F Smith Jr 70), E Lucchin, S Gesi; G Prisciantelli, C Cook (G Garcia 55); L Rizzoli (D Rimpelli, 60), M Manfredi (J Du Toit 52), M Nocera (I Neculai 40), D Sisi, A Zambonin (J Uys 56), T Fox-Matamua (G Ferrari 60), M Pelser, M Kvesic.
Glasgow Warriors: O Smith: S Cancelliere (J Dobie 67), S Tuipulotu, S McDowall, K Steyn; T Jordan (D Miotti 67), G Horne; O Kebble (J Bhatti 53), F Brown (J Matthews 60), Z Fagerson (M Walker 12), S Manjezi, R Gray (J du Preez, 77), R Wilson (G Brown 60), S Vailanu (L Bean 53), M Fagerson.
