Glasgow Warriors claimed the bonus point victory they needed to keep their Heineken Champions Cup hopes alive, but they were made to work for it by a sub-strength Cardiff Blues side on a blustery afternoon at Scotstoun.
Head coach Dave Rennie had admitted to some concern regarding the make-up of the visiting side, packed with young players looking to make names for themselves and his concern was exacerbated by some poor decision-making and execution in the early stages.
They had set out with the elements ostensibly helping them, but the strong wind at their backs was tricky to handle as demonstrated when Stuart Hogg launched a kick from inside own 22 that was to run beyond the dead ball line at the other end of the pitch.
Two early opportunities were then spurned after they had been awarded penalties deep in Blues 22 and been given the chance to kick the ball to touch close to the Cardiff line, the first of them lost when Grant Stewart failed to hit his jumpers and the second when Ali Price took a quick tap penalty and fed DTH van der Merwe, only for the Canadian winger to be forced into touch as he attempted to cross the line.
In between times Matt Fagerson had limped off to replaced by Swinson and their back-row resources were fully tested when skipper Callum Gibbins had to be helped off the field, Chris Fusaro coming on for him with just nine minutes gone.
In spite of that disruption they got into the scoring zone a third time in the opening quarter of an hour and had a free play with a penalty advantage, but once again failed to capitalise, opting to keep ball in forwards rather than give the backs a chance to do something, then opting for a scrum with the penalty, Cardiff doing a good job of slowing them down at the breakdown before Josh Navidi got over the ball to win a penalty.
Yet another promising position was wasted when a chip from Hogg once again ran dead, but with 25 minutes gone they finally made the breakthrough at the fourth time of asking when another penalty allowed them to knock the ball into the same left corner and this time they got it right, carefully setting up the maul and driving solidly before Stewart got the ball down as they walked over the line. Four minutes later they were halfway to their target, after a break from Tommy Seymour supported thunderously by Swinson, got them in close. They were subsequently held up over the line, but at the third in a series of scrums they opted to move it and recycled the ball a couple of times, before Price fed Scott Cummings at unstoppably close range.
The third try arrived soon after, but at the wrong end as Owen Lane and Dan Fish combined well down right, the decision referred to the replay official because it looked as if Fish had been in front of Lane when the winger chipped the ball ahead and he gathered it, before putting him in with return pass, but they were adjudged to have been level, allowing the score to stand.
A 14-5 half-time lead looked fragile, but eight minutes after the break they again scored from a lineout drive, albeit travelling at much greater speed, with Fusaro applying the finish this time and Thomson converting off the crossbar into the wind.
Cardiff responded 10 minutes later with a well worked score, Rhys Carre making the initial break down the left and the ball shifted right where Harri Millard took advantage of the overlap.
In many ways that score was what Glasgow needed after a lengthy spell pinned in their own half since it let them get back up the pitch and Seymour won the race to the ball on the re-start, flicking it back to Cummings who took play deep into the 22 where his side was awarded a penalty. Price opted to tap and go, Nick Grigg providing support to get them close in under the posts before the ball was recycled quickly for Oli Kebble to take his turn to blast his way through a tackle and over on the left.
The job was done in terms of registering the four tries needed for a bonus point, but Cardiff managed to cause some disquiet among the locals when, four minutes later, they stretched the home defence to the right, then to the left, Navidi benefiting from the overlap this time and Jarrod Evans hitting the target with the conversion to reduced the gap to 28-17.That disquiet became distinct unease when a well-worked move from the base of a scrum deep in the Glasgow 22 saw Lane pick the perfect line to fly in under the posts, Evans’ conversion making it a four point gap. However, replacement scrum-half George Horne stilled Glaswegian nerves with just over two minutes remaining when he nipped over from a close range scrum, Thomson’s conversion fortunately rendered irrelevant since the stand off knocked the easy opportunity wide.
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