Glasgow Warriors 29 – 19 Racing 92: Glasgow Player Ratings as Stuart Lancaster's side struck by electric Warriors backline
Yesterday at 05:51 AM
By Harvey Allen
Glasgow Warriors recorded an emphatic home victory against Racing 92 at Scotstoun, with Sione Tuipolotu orchestrating an electrifying symphony in the backline. The Scotland international scored his own try whilst pulling the strings for four more on the night.
George Horne, Rory Sutherland and Rory Darge all returned for Glasgow, whilst Kyle Rowe was rested and Jamie Bhatti was dropped to the bench.
Some of Racing 92's big-name stars were absent on the day, with Owen Farrell, Gaël Fickou and Josua Tuisova all missing from the match-day 23-man squad. Former Warrior Lucio Sordoni returned to Scotstoun for the away side.
The Warriors got off to a flying start; they scored after just two minutes, with their electric backline penetrating the Racing defence, finished off by Horne, becoming Glasgow's leading try scorer in Europe, and converting his own effort.
Glasgow were nothing but dangerous, with line breaks and kick chases every minute of the game, but Racing were able to defend and respond adequately.
Having replaced Horne for a HIA, Jamie Dobie extended Glasgow's early lead. He latched onto a short pass from Matt Fagerson, who danced around the Racing defence to set up the replacement scrum-half.
Just a few minutes later, Sebastian Cancelliere ran in a fantastic backline move, the ball was moving through the Glasgow hands at light speed. Tom Jordan hit the post for the second time after taking kicking duties from the injured Horne.
It took until the 34th minute for Racing to get their first score of the match, the French side working through the phases, before a crossfield kick from Antoine Gilbert finding Vinaya Habosi, winning a contest against his opposite number, and the Fijian ran it in.
Just on the stroke of half time, Sione Tuipulotu secured the Glasgow bonus point, after a darting line broke through the Racing defence and only had Henry Arundell to beat to the line.
After an error-filled start to the second half, Stuart Lancaster made six changes to his Racing side all in one go. A very frustrating match for the former England head coach.
It took 20 minutes for Glasgow to get their first of the half, but an unstoppable maul, caught off a lineout, went over the line: Rory Darge the one to put it down.
Racing thought they were over the line, with Tristan Tedder chasing a grubber into the corner, but he was held up by an impressive Glasgow defence.
The Warriors were to finish the game with 14 men as Matt Fagerson was sent to the bin for slapping the ball from Kleo Labarbe's hands at the back of the ruck.
After a few minutes of pressure, Racing would grab their second, with Lee-Marvin Mazibuko picking and going to dot down a well-worked try for the visitors.
Glasgow seemed to have switched off with such a heavy lead, and Racing were now one try away from a potential two bonus points. A quick phase down the blindside saw Tristan Tedder put it down in the corner.
But it was too little, too late for the French side. A fantastic first-half performance from Glasgow saw them go to the top of Pool 4, and secured themselves a place in the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.
Man of the Match Sione Tuipulotu spoke to Premier Sports about his side's performance on the day: "I feel good, we played well first half, that’s what we aimed for. We dropped off last 20 minutes and that’s something we need to fix before we go to Harlequins."
Looking ahead to next week away at Harlequins, the Scotland international noted that "If we beat [Harlequins] next week, we can play a round of 16 here [at Scotstoun] for the first time and that motivates us. I want to play in front of my son and fiance.”
GLASGOW WARRIORS:
TRIES: 5 (Horne 3', Dobie 18', Cancelliere 23', Tuipulotu 40', Darge 60')
CONVERSIONS: 2 (Horne 3', Jordan 60')
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 1 (Fagerson 70')
RED CARDS: 0
15. Josh McKay 14. Sebastian Cancelliere 13. Huw Jones 12. Sione Tuipulotu 11. Kyle Steyn (Captain) 10. Tom Jordan 9. George Horne 1. Rory Sutherland 2. Johnny Matthews 3. Zander Fagerson 4. Gregor Brown 5. Scott Cummings 6. Matt Fagerson 7. Rory Darge 8. Jack Mann
Replacements
16. Gregor Hiddleston 17. Jamie Bhatti 18. Sam Talakai 19. Alex Samuel 20. Ally Miller 21. Euan Ferrie 22. Jamie Dobie 23. Duncan Weir
Racing 92:
TRIES: 2 (Habosi 34', Mazibuko 73', Tedder 76')
CONVERSIONS: 2 (Tedder 34', 73')
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. Max Spring 14. Vinaya Habosi 13. Tristan Tedder 12. Henry Chavancy 11. Henry Arundell 10. Antoine Gilbert 9. Clovis Le Bail 1. Lino Julien 2. Feleti Kaitu'u 3. Lucio Sordoni 4. Boris Palu 5. Junior Kpoku 6. Noa Zinzen 7. Ibrahim Diallo (Captain) 8. Maxime Baudonne
Replacements
16. Diego Escobar 17. Eddy Ben Arous 18. Lee-Marvin Mazibuko 19. Romain Taofifenua 20. Hacjivah Dayimani 21. Kléo Labarbe 22. Dan Lancaster 23. Dylan Idrissi
Glasgow Warriors Player Ratings
15. Josh McKay – 7
Good link up with the rest of the backline.
14. Sebastian Cancelliere – 8
Finding space and running into it is a winger's textbook job: this was a perfect demonstration.
13. Huw Jones – 9
Fantastic midfield partnership with Tuipulotu contributed heavily to Glasgow's scores, with lots of personal highlights.
12. Sione Tuipulotu – 10
Incredible play in the midfield, hitting hard lines and making a mockery of the Racing defence. Simply fantastic.
11. Kyle Steyn © – 7
Great play out wide and up the middle, a few errors here and there cost Glasgow more opportunities.
10. Tom Jordan – 7
Pulled some good strings for the electric backline, but low percentage from the kicking tee can't be looked past.
9. George Horne – 6
Scored opening try, provided early attacking energy but had to come off after HIA failure 10 minutes in
1. Rory Sutherland – 7
Great demonstration of phase-playing forward ball, textbook job.
2. Johnny Matthews – 7
An iconic line-break from the front rower summed up Glasgow's attacking prowess
3. Zander Fagerson – 7
Incredible workrate kept the Racing attack out and the Racing defence tracking back
4. Gregor Brown – 6
Quiet game, did his job as planned.
5. Scott Cummings – 6
Quiet game.
6. Matt Fagerson – 7
Great break to put through Dobie, kept the attacking pressure high.
7. Rory Darge – 8
Very effective at the breakdown to secure Glasgow ball, well deserved try from the maul.
8. Jack Mann – 8
Has definitely put himself in contention for the Scotland squad, fantastic game.
Replacements – 7
Dobie had a massive task at hand coming on after 10 minutes, but fit right into the Glasgow backline from the off. Other replacements were quiet, but did leave the Glasgow defence a bit sluggish in the last 15 minutes.
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