1
Glasgow march on to semis as Kyle Rowe double dumps Stormers out of URC
By PA
Defending champions Glasgow turned the screw in the second half to defeat the Stormers 36-18 and soar into the United Rugby Championship semi-finals.
ADVERTISEMENT
Warriors led 19-13 at the end of an exhilarating first half in the Scotstoun sunshine and were briefly pegged back to 19-18 by their South African visitors before pulling away to book their spot in the last four.
Franco Smith’s side, who beat Stormers by a 17-point margin at the same stage of last year’s championship, will face the winner of Saturday’s clash between Leinster and Scarlets in next weekend’s semi-final.
Glasgow had only two of their four British and Irish Lions inclusions available in the shape of Sione Tuipulotu and Scott Cummings, with Zander Fagerson and Huw Jones absent through injury.
Stormers started strongly and got the scoreboard ticking over following a sustained spell of pressure with a close-range penalty from stand-off Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the seventh minute.
But the pendulum swung in favour of the hosts when visiting wing Seabelo Senatla was sent to the sin bin in the ninth minute for failing to release in front of his own line.
Glasgow immediately kicked for touch and scored from the resulting lineout. Euan Ferrie received a short throw from Gregor Hiddleston and deftly flicked it into the hands of Rory Darge, who burst over from close range. George Horne converted.
ADVERTISEMENT
Warriors increased their advantage after a quarter of an hour when Tuipulotu nudged a lovely grubber kick through a gap for Kyle Rowe to surge over on the left. Horne added the extras.
Another Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty got Stormers back on track and they closed to within a point in the 26th minute after Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s high ball dropped kindly for Senatla, who dashed clear. Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted.
Warriors swiftly reasserted themselves when Henco Venter, who will leave at the end of the season, scored off the back of a lineout maul in the 28th minute, although Horne was short with his conversion attempt.
The South Africans hit back again early in the second half when Senatla bolted away on the left to finish off an excellent move for his second of the evening, although Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed the opportunity to put his side a point ahead when his conversion drifted wide.
ADVERTISEMENT
Glasgow reacted impressively to this scare, however, and got themselves some breathing space in the 46th minute as Rowe wriggled brilliantly over the whitewash after team-mate Tom Jordan was halted, with Horne on point with his conversion.
Five minutes later, Horne finished off a swashbuckling attack that started deep inside the Glasgow half, with the scrum-half again adding the extras.
With five-try Glasgow holding all the aces, they opted to take the points in the 56th minute when Horne’s penalty took them 18 points clear, ensuring a smooth closing quarter with no further scoring.
News, stats, live rugby and more! Download the new RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!
There isn’t much better than a double dump, is there?
Particularly after a night of heavy beer drinking.
Glasgow thoroughly deserved to win. They were dominant everywhere excepting scrum time, but they never really let the Stormers capitalize on that scrum advantage. Most impressive was a Glasgow defensive performance that, aside from one lovely try, just did not let the Stormers build effective attacks. Even with good territorial position the Stormers frequently found themselves stuck behind the gainline and bereft of ideas.
I came away wondering what happened to their usual flair and incisiveness. You could ascribe it to great Glasgow defense, and there is no doubt that this was part of it. But the horrendous tackle stats, and associated Glasgow line breaks, aren’t explained by that. And a long string of unforced errors in attack included missed line out throws, dropped passes, limited success on catching high balls, and a general lack of spark. The Stormers were not clicking, and at least some of it seemed self-imposed.
One ponderable is what this match would have looked like in Cape Town, and if there a reason to believe that the game might have been closer. And for me that leads to questions about the artificial pitch. We saw a backline scything through the Stormers defensive line, especially on counter-attack. The Stormers were mostly effective on scramble defense, but the scramble was necessitated by the missed first up tackles. That seldom happens in Cape Town, so what’s the deal? My guess is that the artificial pitch turbo-charges the home field advantage for Glasgow. Adapting to conditions is part of the game, so this is no excuse, but I am wondering if it is part of the explanation.
It’s disappointing that the Stormers never got into their rhythm, but credit to Glasgow for a resounding win. The Stormers simply could not do what was necessary to earn a place in the semis. And the Warriors did do so.
Its a fair point and not a cojncidence that teams with artificial pitches are almost always attack oriented. You can’t adapt perfectly to relatively averse conditions, and how well you adapt to conditions can determine success. If there are a lot of conditions that need adapting to then some mitigation can be allowed. Glasgow did target the Stormers lineout. I think Glasgow also caught a break when Stormers went for a scrum 5metres out which would have resulted in a yellow for ANY Glasgow. Glasgow went backwards and then down. Brace’s call to ‘Use it’ was very lenient. It allowed Glasgow escape from that key situation but a couple more went down in the same way showing Glasgow had found their get out of jail free card.
I thought Glasgow ran their backline deep which allowed them get passed the early rushers, but then they often passed back inside to a runner at speed who hit big holes left by the rush defense regrouping.
Stormers were well in it and it felt like the Glasgow half time lead was slightly against the run of play. The Glasgow try off a Stormers lineout was an absolute killer though.
💩 end to a 💩 season. You failed, Dobbo.
Impressive by Glasgow. The defence which was strong in Leinster was strong here also. Stormers lineout was targetted and gave Glasgow a lot of joy including some attacking platform including that killer second half try. The backline attack at a more acute angle to run at speed at targetted gaps.
It looked to me like Glasgow had more homework done for this than Stormers.
What impressed also is that this was a Glasgow style that could win the tournament. What I mean is they have turned into a potential knock out beast to take on the specific challenges that might await them.
We will know today who the opponents are but it is fascinating how much Glasgow’s play has evolved since losing heavily in Dublin a month ago.
To my eye Glasgow have adopted a style capable of beating Leinster which is suitable for some of the SA challenges that may lie ahead. We saw that style yesterday in my view. Lets see what transpires today though.
URC is hitting the heights this year.
Fair comment but Glasgow have a way to go before they’re ready to turn over Leinster in Dublin, even if they can field their first XV.
No previews for this or the other big URC matches.
Is this site all about NZ and England?
Reflecting World rugby so.
I don't think that there is intentional bias in Rugbypass coverage, but I sense that the editorial policy does try to maintain a certain balance across their target audiences.
As a World Rugby property, RugbyPass is presumably part of a plan to grow the global game, including maintaining interest with existing audiences and targeting some new audiences. Certain audiences are apparently not really in the cross hairs (the US MLR audience being the obvious one). Other audiences would variously be stable, at risk, or represent expansion opportunities.
The URC is a particular audience segment, and a pretty robust one. Not only does it include five of the top twelve countries on the mens world rankings (42%), but it includes the primary franchise teams of the top ranked country and current RWC champions (SA).
Furthermore, SA is extremely influential in the URC. It delivers over 50% of the revenues. The top five teams in the URC this year are all coached by SA head/primary coaches. All eight QF teams include SA players. Two of the four QFs are in SA, and a third involves an SA side. Beyond that, I sense that there is a disproportionate amount of commentary from SA fans on the site, and at some point that mix might be seen as suboptimal.
While I am sure that individual journalists will write about whatever they choose, I am also sure that the editorial policy intentionally does not prioritize the promotion of the URC in general, and SA in particular.
Out-thought out-coached out-played. Dobson’s days numbered?
His post match comment wasn’t a great look, when he talked about being unable to match Glasgow physically and being unsure what to do about it going forward.