Weary Warriors stunned by Saints

GLASGOW’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup were dealt a serious blow last night at Scotstoun when they came off second best against a Saints side who were at once sharper and more composed. Although this was only the first of six games in Pool 3 for Gregor Townsend’s team, they will need to play significantly better - and perhaps prosper from a loss of form by the Saints and Racing 92 as well - to have a fighting chance of going through to the last eight.

Northampton, who also won their opening game against the Scarlets last weekend, now look set to vie with the French for the one automatic qualification spot. Racing beat Scarlets 29-12 last night.

Despite the disappointment of what was largely a lacklustre showing from his Pro 12 champions, Townsend insisted that - given teams rarely win all six pool games - the target essentially remained unchanged. “This tournament is very tough, but we need to win at least four if not all of our five games,” the head coach said. “That was the target before this game and we need to go down to Northampton and win, and the players have the belief to do that.

“It’s disappointing, but the start we had was affected by a bit of bad luck when ball doesn’t go to hand. And we had a penalty which hit the posts.

“We made mistakes from things we don’t normally do and conceded tries in a manner which doesn’t happen often. We were better in the second half, but the lineout maul wasn’t as good as it has been. The way we drove forward was a positive but we couldn’t turn it into scores.”

The Warriors did indeed produce a decent second-half fightback after a very poor first 40 minutes, but never had the platform they needed up front to impose themselves on Northampton. Although they took the lead after five minutes through a Finn Russell penalty, they soon relinquished the lead after a Garryowen deep into the home 22 evaded Stuart Hogg. The bounce fell kindly for George Pisi, who collected and forced his way over before Stephen Myler added the extra points.

Hooker Pat MacArthur was forced off by injury, meaning a debut for Shalva Mamukashvili. The Georgian and his fellow-forwards were pushed back when the Saints had a put-in on the Glasgow five-metre line, and when the referee awarded a penalty for a collapsed scrum, Myler was on target again to put his team 10-3 ahead.

Things got worse for the Warriors when Ryan Grant was sinbinned just before the 20-minute mark for an offence in the scrum. They got worse again minutes later when Myler made it three out of three with another penalty.

Just as those three points looked like being all they would concede while a man down, Glasgow conceded a soft try. A Saints attack appeared to have run out of space close to the right touchline, but winger Ah See Tuala forced his way through an attempted tackle by Hogg to claim his team’s second try. Myler’s conversion attempt was wide, but at 18-3 the English team had a commanding lead.

Glasgow needed to score next, and they did five minutes before the break through Peter Horne. No 8 Josh Strauss did well to get the ball away from a retreating scrum, and Horne gathered a pop pass from Russell to finish off the attack. That try, converted by Russell, gave the home team a glimmer of hope, but a stoppage-time penalty from Myler made it 21-10 to Northampton at the break.

Some decent pressure at the start of the second half suggested that a comeback was not beyond Glasgow, but after 53 minutes Tuala grabbed his second try of the night after winning the race to touch down a grubber kick. The conversion was missed, but that still looked very much like game over.

However, minutes after Luther Burrell was yellow-carded, Strauss reduced the deficit with a try after good work by Leone Nakarawa and Russell. Although hopes of a comeback rose after that, poor lineout play cost Glasgow, and in the final ten minutes, with that 11-point gap between the teams, the match lost its zip.

At least Northampton were denied the bonus point that a fourth try would have given them, but that was about all Townsend’s team had to be pleased with. The only other consolation is that they know they can and will play a lot better than this.

GLASGOW: Tries: Horne, Strauss. Con: Russell. Pen: Russell

NORTHAMPTON: Tries: Pisi, Tuala 2. Con: Myler. Pens: Myler 3.

Glasgow: S Hogg (T Naiyaravoro 52); T Seymour, M Bennett, P Horne (R Vernon 64), S Lamont; F Russell, M Blair (G Hart 74); R Grant (G Reid 52), P MacArthur (S Mamukashvili 8), S Puafisi (Z Fagerson 59), L Nakarawa (T Swinson 69), J Gray, R Harley, S Favaro (R Wilson 52), J Strauss.

Northampton: B Foden; A Tuala (J Elliott 63), G Pisi, L Burrell, G North; S Myler, L Dickson (K Fotuali’i 41); A Waller (E Waller 65), M Haywood, K Brookes (P Hill 65), M Paterson (T Harrison 69), C Day, J Gibson (J Fisher 74), T Wood, S Dickinson. Unused substitutes: M Williams, JJ Hanrahan.

Referee: P Gauzere (France). Attendance: 6,800.