A six-try romp, including two for Niko Matawalu on his 100th appearance, extended Glasgow’s advantage to a commanding 13 points at the top of Pro14 Conference A as Cardiff Blues were swept aside at Scotstoun last night.
Such was their scoreboard superiority that a four try bonus point was secured by half-time, the home side bristling with menace throughout, albeit they were far from dominant in terms of the game as a whole.
The tone was set in the early stages as Cardiff controlled possession for a lengthy period before scoring the game’s first points after four minutes with a Jarrod Evans penalty. Glasgow, by contrast, should have registered a try with their first meaningful possession, Nick Grigg releasing Ali Price who looked certain to score until he lost control of the ball in attempting to fend off full-back Tom Williams’ cover tackle just short of the line. His blushes were spared moments later, however, when ruck ball was won just outside the Cardiff 22 and Price fed Adam Ashe who headed down the narrow side and was supported by Ruaridh Jackson who made good ground into the 22 before delivering a neat return off-load to put the flanker in.
Cardiff continued to enjoy decent spells of possession without looking like scoring, whereas Glasgow looked dangerous every time they got the ball and claimed their second try soon after. This time the pack made the initial inroads with a lineout drive before Price was given the ball and as he selected his target, Stafford McDowall’s dummy run drew two defenders, leaving Matawalu a huge hole to run into. The Fijian took full advantage, stepping past a helpless Williams at full tilt before sliding in.
They then spurned a chance to claim a third try, with Price again the culprit. This time Horne broke from midway inside his own half, then sent his half-back partner clear and with George Turner thundering up in support it looked a straightforward two-on-one, but with Williams looking to have been caught in two minds and the dummy consequently looking the better option, Price opted for the pass and allowed the full-back to bat the ball down.
Once again, though, the situation was recovered soon after and Price’s quick thinking was the spark as he took a quick tap penalty deep inside his own half and fed McDowall. The strong-running youngster gave a show of the ball then turned on the power, getting deep into Cardiff territory before Jackson and Grigg both linked well, the latter finding skipper Callum Gibbins charging up in support and his pace and power and power was such that, in spite of being tackled five metres short of the line, his momentum and dexterity let him stretch to the line.
With the bonus point in range it was a surprise when Horne opted to kick for goal late in the half and even more so when he hit the post. However, yet again they made light of that failure with Grigg providing the spark once more. Gathering the ball on his own 10 metre line, he got immediately into his running, his acceleration taking him in behind the defensive line where, with Tommy Seymour gliding up alongside, he merely had to commit the last man before sending the winger clear and executed the manoeuvre perfectly.
Cardiff finally looked to have crossed the home line just before the break when they created some space for Olly Robinson on the right, but Matawalu somehow got hands under the ball as he crossed the line to prevent the flanker from touching down. A penalty was then awarded for a previous offence, but at the resultant lineout Kiran McDonald rose like the basketball player he used to be to slap the ball away from the Cardiff jumpers, letting Matawalu kick to touch and end a highly satisfactory, if far from faultless half for the home side.
Cardiff were denied again two minutes after the break when Brad Thyer was adjudged by the TV replay official to have been stopped just shore but when play was again brought back because of previous offence and this time they set up the drive properly to steer the prop’s front-row colleague Kris Dacey over the line.
When Glasgow got within range again a neat Price chip behind the defence let Rory Hughes get in on the act, the replacement winger, who had come on for Tommy Seymour at half-time, sliding onto the ball and across the line. Grigg subsequently fell off tackle on Evans in midfield to allowing the stand off score a try he converted himself, but that, too, was cancelled out when Matawalu intercepted an Evans pass on the Glasgow 22 and embarked on an 80 metre glory run to let Pete Horne round off the scoring with his fifth conversion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here