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October 06, 2007

Glasgow Warriors 16 - 15 Connacht

Celtic League match played at Firhill on Friday October 5th 2007 | 8 comments

John Beattie went over for Glasgow's try
Colin Gregor kicked a late penalty as Glasgow Warriors broke their Magners League duck against Connacht on Friday night.

However, Sean Lineen's men were far from convincing in sealing a tense triumph against a dogged Irish outfit at their new Maryhill home.

Glasgow struggled to settle as a string of unforced errors gave Connacht the early initiative.

In just four minutes Tim Donnelly slotted a penalty after the home forwards strayed offside.

Gregor did get Glasgow off the mark with a 40-metre kick from in front of the posts and the Warriors were handed a further boost when Colm Rigney was sin-binned for an off-the-ball tackle.

And the Scottish side suddenly shifted up a gear in a bid to make the extra man count.

Kiwi Daryl Gibson was first to inspire Glasgow with a surging run from his own half.

Then Bernardo Stortoni linked neatly with Gibson to release Max Evans whose searing pace took him deep into the Connacht 22. However, Sam Pinder denied by Mel Deane's desperate last-ditch tackle.

Glasgow refused to be denied and the next phase resulted in a scrum five from which Stortoni deceived the Irish defence with a deft side-foot before Johnny Beattie plunged over.

Gregor added the conversion as the Warriors took control.

They almost notched a second try within a few minutes when a switch pass by Evans found Stortoni racing through again. However, the flying Argentinian's wayward pass failed to find Pinder who had looked certain to score.

Stortoni was in the thick of it again with another dangerous break on the right flank and only resolute Irish tackling kept him out.

Glasgow were left to rue their failure to cash in on a spell of dominance when Donnelly reduced the deficit with a drop-goal on the stroke of half-time.

But Gregor restored the seven-point advantage with his second penalty after Moray Low's burst had forced an infringement.

Donnelly responded with a further kick before Gregor looked certain to score after Stevie Swindall and Low combined to send the scrum-half darting towards the line.

However, Ofisa Treviranus produced a try-saving tackle to knock the ball from the Glasgow player's grasp.

The deficit was reduced to a single point when Donnelly landed his second drop goal of the night with a superb 45-metre effort.

Gregor failed to ease the nerves when he missed his third penalty of the match and instead Donnelly put the visitors ahead with a monster penalty from the halfway line.

Gregor atoned for earlier errors with an easy kick in the 80th minute but the home side still had to survive 10 anxious minutes of stoppage time before clinching their first win.

Referee Phil Fear (Wales)
Man of the Match Bernardo Stortoni
Team
1
Ed Kalman
2
Eric Milligan
3
Moray Low
4
Andy Newman
5
Alastair Kellock
6
Steve Swindall
7
James Eddie
8
John Beattie
9
Sam Pinder
10
Colin Gregor
11
Colin Shaw
12
Daryl Gibson
13
Graeme Morrison
14
Max Evans
15
Bernardo Stortoni
Sub
Pat MacArthur
Sub
Ben Prescott
Sub
Dan Turner
Sub
Richie Vernon
Sub
Calum Forrester
Sub
Scott Barrow
Sub
Hefin O'Hare
Match Substitutions
Off On
Colin Shaw Hefin O'Hare
Off On
Sam Pinder Scott Barrow
Off On
Eric Milligan Pat MacArthur
Off On
Ed Kalman Ben Prescott
Off On
Andy Newman Dan Turner
Scorers
Colin Gregor Penalty
John Beattie Try 
Colin Gregor Conversion
Colin Gregor Penalty
Colin Gregor Penalty
Comments
Posted by Alistair on October 6, 2007 10:15 AM | Reply to this comment

You know me, never one to complain about the ref. . . No wait, I love complaining about the ref! What a shocker of a performance, not quite Montferrand bad but certainly in the vicinity. He bottled out of so many yellows I lost count.

Posted by Scott on October 6, 2007 10:47 AM | Reply to this comment

We made didn't play a very mature game - we should have claimed more territory, and Parks is great for that, especially when we saw that their new fly-half loves to kick goals. Oh well, at least it's a win in the bag.

Does anyone know the attendance figure - looked poor at kick-off, but a lot of pie-munchers arrived after about 5 minutes looking for seats, so it might have been alright eventually....2000 ??

Posted by neilmacd74 on October 6, 2007 11:41 AM | Reply to this comment

BBC report quoted the attendance as 1250, not brilliant to be honest.
Referee was utterly shocking. I thought he done everything possible to prevent us winning.
If Colin Gregor had kicked a couple of the penalties he missed which seemed relatively straightforward then we would have one a bit more convincingly

Posted by ballij on October 6, 2007 12:30 PM | Reply to this comment

Glasgow were poor last night actually no.8,9 & 10 were awful the rest had pass marks. Three gentleman need to have a long hard look at themselves, especially since they will not be occupying the jerseys when injuries and internationals come back.Their less than professional attitude was summed up by the Gregor's lazy attempt to score a certain try in the 2nd half.

On the positive thought No.7 had a good game and actually the pack did well. Max was good at breaking the gameline though still looks a bit raw, Gibson was solid. Just a shame that 3 players decided to play 7's rather than win the game.

Posted by hannah on October 6, 2007 01:28 PM | Reply to this comment

was quite shocked by the game but a win is a win....ref was terrible-since when do we play to 45 and then 48 minutes??? did i miss the new rules.....there was a fair crowd there which was good...evans, shaw and stortoni were good but u could tell that we were missing parks.....

Posted by Miss NZ on October 6, 2007 04:53 PM | Reply to this comment

The clock was not stopping for timeouts if that's what you are basing your comments on.

It really was a poor performance from 1-14.

Posted by fin on October 7, 2007 10:05 PM | Reply to this comment

We all think we are refs. No, there are no new LAWS! Yes it was a poor game but the most shocking part of Friday night was the behaviour of a few 'fans' shouting abuse and making rude gestures towards the ref. It was so bad at one point one of the stewards had a word with one gentleman. Then to my horror one of his companions was handing out leaflets encouraging people to join the supporters club. Not a good advert!

Posted by bossco85 on October 6, 2007 06:46 PM | Reply to this comment

Well, first of all, a win is a win. Atleast we cant play that badly for the rest of the season. Some of the boys really need to have a good look at themselves after that performance. It is blatantly obvious we miss Parks, but we should still have enough class to hammer a team like Connacht. Gibson, Stortoni, Swindell all looked sharp as did Max with a couple of good breaks, so there are positives to take from a horrible night,let the thoughts turn to Leinster and a much improved performance. Build and keep moving forward, and atleast edinburgh didnt win!!

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