A five-try win over the third-placed Cheetahs at Scotstoun last night protected Glasgow Warriors’ season-long unbeaten home record in the PRO14 and secured their place in the play-offs with six matches to spare.

On a night which also marked their captain Rob Harley’s record equalling 177th appearance for the club, the way it was achieved, left head coach Dave Rennie highly satisfied, pointing towards the way his players had reacted to conceding an early score against the run of play less than a fortnight after Scotland struggled in similar circumstances.

“It was a really mature performance from our team, especially Adam [Hastings],” said the New Zealander. “What the guys would have spoken about under the posts was, I assume, that up until then we had all the play. It is not too dissimilar to the try Wales scored against Scotland a couple of weeks ago.

“There was no need to panic as we had made all the play and they would have had a chat about what next.”

It was all the more impressive because 21-year-old Hastings was one of several youngsters facing opponents who were at full strength, unaffected by Six Nations commitments.

“The expectation is that the Cheetahs are strong and we are missing a lot but we put out a good team and prepared well. You have to play a big chunk of the year without big names,” noted however. 

Monsoon conditions had greeted the visitors from Africa, the heavens opening a few minutes before kick off and while the temperature meant it was the sort of evening with which the home team was considerably more familiar they stole the early initiative with that breakaway try.

Hastings having nudged his side into good position with the first of several well weighted and angled kicks which punctuated the opening half, Warriors had been pressing when, close to their opponents’ line, Siosiua Halanukonuka had the ball stripped as he went to ground by Henco Venter, the flanker immediately powering away down the left accompanied by three colleagues. He selected the quickest to take play on as they reached the Warriors half, giving winger Malcolm Jaer enough of a lead to prevent Niko Matawalu from catching him, his try converted by Niel Marias with nine minutes on the clock.

The Fijian duly found a different way to rule out the score just three minutes later when, running from deep, he exploded onto a delayed pass from Adam Hastings as Glasgow shifted the ball from right to left, the pause allowing the defence to over-commit, creating a gap for Matawalu to race through and he took his turn to take maximum advantage of his momentum, going to ground early to thwart the cover.

Another pacey counter-attack produced their second try, the opportunity this time produced by a formidable hit from Tim Swinson in midfield, knocking the ball clear in the tackle and it was rapidly transferred to Ruaridh Jackson who chipped it right-footed over the defensive line, stabbed it onwards again with his left shin, then gathered on the run 10 metres short of try-line, to score on the right. Hastings was unable to put over the conversion and while he briefly edged his side into a two score lead, that was cancelled out by a Marias strike just before the break, leaving the Warriors 15-10 up at that stage.

The Cheetahs edged ever closer four minutes into the second half when Marias knocked over a penalty from the halfway line after a scrummage infringement, but Glasgow were quickly on the offensive again, once more showing their footballing skills as Hastings chipped the ball in behind, Matawalu hacked it square towards Horne and he dabbed it towards the try-line where opposite number Shaun Venter just beat him to the ball in knocking it dead.

From the resultant five-metre scrum the Warriors ran through a string of phases without finding a way through, but when they were awarded a penalty they kicked it to touch and this time the siege was rewarded as prop Siosiua Halanukonuka forced his way over. Hastings’ missed conversion meant the Cheetahs were still within a score and they again reduced the deficit after the home scrum conceded another penalty inside their 22, Marias again taking advantage.

Once again the Glasgow response to a penalty strike was a fine try, Hastings and Matawalu combining to put Sam Johnson into space and he hurdled an opponent before finding Horne, as so often, on his shoulder, the scrum-half scurrying the last 30 metres to register his ninth try of the season and secure the bonus point.

With more than a quarter of the game remaining there was still work to be done to secure the win and Clayton Blommetjes, the Cheetahs full-back, brought it back to a one score game again after Shaun Venter fired out a triple miss pass following a ruck under the posts, to take advantage of a stretched defence, Marias converting again.

A Hastings penalty stretched the advantage to seven points once again at 30-23 and then another fine counter-attack eased the tension as Grigg made another break from inside his 22 then fed Horne’s replacement Henry Pyrgos as he reached the opposition 10 metre line and he ran a clever line to out-wit the cover and, after stumbling just short, clawed his way over the line, Hastings’ conversion making it 37-23.