Connacht 5

Glasgow Warriors 41

RUTHLESS Warriors devoured champ-ions Connacht on their own patch to begin their Guinness PRO12 campaign – a bonus-point victory that was wrapped up by the 53rd minute.

Two tries from Tommy Seymour and one each from Stuart Hogg, Tim Swinson, Sila Puafisi and Sean Lamont gave Gregor Townsend’s side a deserved win – and what a way it was to avenge defeat in last year’s play-off semi-final.

Connacht had little answer to Warriors’ incessant pressure and their only response was a try from Niyi Adeolokun seven minutes from the break while Ryan Wilson was sin-binned.

It was Connacht’s biggest home defeat for 14 years and full-back Hogg was thrilled with his side’s display.

“We were disappointed with how it ended last season so we wanted to come across here and put down a marker and I think we very much did that,” he said. “We were gutted with that. We’ve drawn a line under it.

“It was a lot of hard work. We’ve had a very good pre-season. The boys have enjoyed it. We have a lot of running under our belt and we’re just excited to be back. You can see it in the way we played there, we expressed ourselves and we had some fun.”

Warriors were very much on top at the breakdown throughout, but a couple of stand-out turnovers from Swinson and Jonny Gray early on got the Scotstoun side on the front foot.

In typical style, Connacht tried to run everything from deep and on a couple of occasions early on Nigerian-born winger Adeolokun almost broke clear down the right, but Seymour was on hand to make the cover tackles.

And all their good work in defence – Glasgow were very quick off the line – paid off after 11 minutes when they took the lead. From an attacking line-out on the right, Warriors elected to maul and soon made positive yards.

The excellent Leonardo Sarto was eventually held up by the Connacht defence, but they had committed too many men to repelling that move, and once the ball was swung to the left, Hogg sent Seymour over in the corner.

But there was to be a way back into the tie for Pat Lam’s side, and it came from a rash tackle by Wilson that saw him earn a yellow card after 28 minutes. He was very low and very late on out-half Jack Carty and could well have been handed a more severe sanction. With a one-man advantage the home side began to turn the screw.

It was no surprise that centre Bundee Aki was at the heart of the move. His powerful leg drive forced five Warriors defenders to zone in on the New Zealander, and when the ball was whipped from left to right through the hands of Caolin Blade, Finlay Bealham and Eoin Griffin, Adeolokun was on hand to score in the corner, although Henry Pyrgos came close to tackling him into touch. There was no successful conversion from the touchline for Carty and Glasgow led by 8-5, but that advantage was soon stretched by Townsend’s side.

Considering that their scrum was taking such a battering, they held solid with seven men and Rob Harley did well to take possession on halfway.

After the play moved from right to left through a couple of phases, Hogg again linked with Seymour, who stepped back in off the right against the drift defence to score his second try, moments before his side were restored to their full complement.

It was a ruthless opening half from Glasgow and they deserved their 13-5 interval lead.

They kept the pressure on from the restart and it told after six minutes with Warriors’ third try.

Sarto was held up over the try-line, which resulted in a five-metre scrum. Crucially, this time the scrum was rock solid from Glasgow and the quick ball launched the attack, with Hogg on hand to stretch over the line.

Pyrgos’ conversion made it 20-5 and Warriors set out in search of a bonus-point score.

It came in the 53rd-minute following a blistering counter- attack after Ultan Dillane knocked on in attack. Pyrgos almost scored, but Swinson was on hand to pick up and score from a few inches.

Further tries from Puafisi and Lamont underlined Warriors’ dominance as they camped for almost the entire second half in Connacht territory.

Scorers: Connacht: Try: Adeolokun (33). Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Seymour (11, 37), Hogg (46), Swinson (53), Puafisi (59), Lamont (71). Pen: Pyrgos (25). Cons: Pyrgos (47, 55), Clegg (72)

Scoring sequence: (Connacht first): 0-5, 0-8, 5-8, 5-13 (half time), 5-18, 5-20, 5-25, 5-27, 5-32, 5-34, 5-39, 5-41.

Connacht: C Kelleher; N Adeolokun, E Griffin (P Robb 55), B Aki, M Healy; J Carty (S O'Leary 66), C Blade (K Marmion 48); D Buckley (R Loughney 50), T McCartney (D Heffernan 61), F Bealham (JP Cooney 61); U Dillane (L Stevenson 61), D Qualter; E McKeon, N Fox-Matamua, J Muldoon (C) (J Connolly 72).

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg (S Lamont 61); L Sarto, A Dunbar, S Johnson, T Seymour; P Horne (R Clegg 64), H Pyrgos (A Price 69); G Reid (R Grant 50), P MacArthur (C Flynn 50), Z Fagerson (S Puafisi 50); T Swinson, J Gray (C) (T Uanivi 69); R Harley, S Favaro (L Wynne 64), R Wilson (L Wynne 18-27, blood).

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU)