Gareth had an impressive game for Glasgow Warriors

The first-half performance was a joy to watch, and their final score was their best in the Celtic League since that famous 48-20 win against the Dragons in early March this year.

Calvin Howarth was in masterly form, not just with a 100% goal-kicking record with four conversions and a like number of penalties. His control of the game from hand was even more impressive than it had been in the win against The Borders two weeks ago. The swiftness and length of his passes created space that all of the back five enjoyed.

He had a try as well for 25 points in the match, only one short of the league record for Glasgow that he set in that match against the Borders. Adding in his 14 against Cardiff last week, he has scored 65 in three successive league games. Deservedly, he was tonight’s man of the match.

But by the end Glasgow were hanging on, though not to salvage victory. They had to snap into a fearsome defensive game simply to maintain respectability in a margin that had once looked like being superb.

For the last 24 minutes they were short-handed after Euan Murray had been sent off for stamping. For the final couple of minutes they down to 13 after Fergus Thomson had been sin-binned for joining a ruck from the side.

Yet it will be Glasgow’s first-half game that live in the memory. They struck early with two Howarth goals in the first five minutes, both penalties for offside, and between those scores Gareth Maclure sliced through into the Llanelli 22 before he was cut down.

Llanelli hit back at the first opportunity, though they ought to have been penalised yet again for offside. Instead, in the follow-up Howarth was penalised for a high tackle, and from Llanelli’s continuity Barry Davies eventually swept in for a try. Gareth Bowen converted, and the Scarlets led 7-6 after 11 minutes.

But Glasgow responded with a try that will surely rank among the scores of the season for all the factors that made it. The try’s origin was in John Beattie’s steal at the tail of a penalty lineout. Howarth exploited it was a long, flat pass to fire Maclure, Andy Craig linked, and Graeme Beveridge finished off.

Howarth converted and then added a penalty goal in 19 minutes. A Bowen penalty goal cut the lead back to 16-10 after 28 minutes, but Glasgow made sure of the bonus point with three tries in the 10 minutes before the interval.

Murray, Kevin Tkachuk, Andy Hall, and Beattie all contributed to willing continuity before Howarth sent Kenny Logan in. A Colin Shaw break kept up the pressure before another Beattie lineout gain sparked the assault in which Beveridge set up the position for Howarth to finish off with a try.

Both Glasgow props had a say in the prelude to the bonus-point try. Tkachuk ran back a Llanelli kick, and Murray kept the momentum going up the left before Craig chipped ahead. Dan Turner had a dunt at the line before Logan finished off in the left corner with his second try. Even that was not too far out for Howarth to kick his fourth conversion for 37-10 at half-time.

Howarth added his fourth penalty goal four minutes into the second half, but soon afterwards a Glasgow lapse allowed Salesi Finau to run almost half the length of the pitch for a try, Bowen converting. The pattern had changed. The crowd, instead of cheering Glasgow’s positive rugby, turned to jeering the referee, David Keane. To phrase it politely, the Irishman called some strange decisions, not least when Mike Phillips ran in for a try after blatant obstruction in the lead-up.

Murray’s dismissal meant that, with Andrew Kelly injured, scrums had to be uncontested, and his absence could have been the last straw. Instead, however, Glasgow dug deeper into their reserves. Their fitness was tested and not found wanting until the numbers were further reduced with Thomson’s sin-binning for joining from the side, an offence that had been commonplace all evening, though rarely penalised.

Only then could Llanelli snatch their bonus-point try, when Evans dived in at the left corner. Bowen failed to convert, the only goal missed by either side’s kicker.

Read the official match report here.