ONE down, one to go. Glasgow Warriors’ mini-tour to Italy got off to the perfect start, with the side not only claiming the win and scoring the bonus point scoring bonus point they were so desperate to register, but finishing with a six-try rout that propelled them into the top four of the Guinness PRO12.

Not that you would have guessed what was coming from the first half performance when brilliance and woeful play were mixed in equal measure until. Then, Stuart Hogg took a grip on affairs at the start of the second half and the team started to relax as their lead grew more and more comfortable.

“We were all disappointed at the break. You could tell the players were not happy with how things had gone in the first half,” said Gregor Townsend, the head coach, afterwards. “We were not at our best. To get rewards, you have to be hard working and disciplined and we were not at the required standard on a few occasions.

“Then, the start of the second half relaxed everybody. The speed of ball, the speed of contact, the carrying, the effort that went into that sequence that ended in a try was fantastic. When you put that effort in and are playing in a brilliant, wide ground, there are going to be opportunities and we took a few of them, one a great bit of individual skill [from Hogg] and that created the opening for a couple more late on.

“It was a transformation in attitude more than anything. Sometimes you play to the level of the opposition and we did not start at our required standard until the second half, when a huge effort went into the game and we got the rewards.”

He denied they had planned to go for the bonus point four tries from the start, saying it was the wind rather than tactics that persuaded them to ignore a string of kickable penalties to gun for tries instead. Since it seemed to have paid off when their second visit to the home 22 saw Jonny Gray, the captain, crashing through the defence for an early score, it seemed reasonable to keep the tactic going.

Any thoughts that they were going to speed away from there, however, were quickly forgotten as Glasgow surrendered the ball and then gave away a penalty at the following ruck for Hayward to cut the gap to a single point.

Eventually, the rewards came when Henry Pyrgos, the scrum-half, first created the chance with a break to the Italian 22, and then created the score with a quick tap penalty that took him almost to the line, before Peter Horne popped up to finish the job.

That should have been it, but the concentration problems soon raised their heads again as, first, they were too slow covering a quick throw in to allow Angelo Esposito, the home wing, to bring his side back into the game with a try just before the break. Then they got distracted about an apparent injustice when Treviso were not called offside and Pyrgos was spotted tugging a jersey in frustration and Hayward added the points to give his side a half time lead.

That was the home team’s high point and the explanation for why, can be offered in two words: Stuart Hogg.

The thing was that Glasgow were going through the phases and battering at the home line without creating anything until Hogg took a hand, stepped and swerved his way through a crowded defence before offloading to Simone Favaro, the former Treviso flanker now on the Glasgow books, who was more than happy to take the try against his old teammates.

Then it was back to stalemate for a while until Hogg spotted a gap, raced through and had just enough pace to go outside Luke McLean, his opposite number, and inside the touchline to grab the all-important fourth try.

That was the signal for Glasgow to really relax. Though they were only 10 points to the good, they were clearly going to win the game such was their dominance over every facet of play and the only question was how many tries would follow once the replacements came flooding on.

The answer to that was two: one for Grayson Hart, the other for James Malcolm, mirror images of each other with plenty of phases and an unguarded blind side at the final ruck giving them the space.

Benetton Treviso: Try: Eposito. Con: Hayward. Pens: Hayward 3.

Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Gray, Horne, Favaro, Hogg, Hart, Malcolm. Cons: Russell 4.

Benetton Treviso: J Hayward; L Nitoglia (L McLean, 54), T Iannone, S Christie, A Esposito; J Ambrosini, E Gori (A Lucchese, 74); Alberto De Marchi (M Zanusso, 48), L Bigi (D Giazzon, 61), F Filippetto (R Harden, 42), F Paulo, M Fuser (D Budd, 66), M Lazzaroni, A Zanni (C) (A Steyn, 54), R Barbieri (Andrea De Marchi, 54).

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg (G Bryce, 67); T Naiyaravoro (L Jones, 60-70), M Bennett, P Horne, S Lamont; F Russell, H Pyrgos (G Hart, 60); G Reid (J Yanuyanutawa, 60), F Brown (J Malcolm, 70), S Puafisi (D Rae, 66), T Swinson (L Nakarawa, 60), J Gray (C), J Strauss, S Favaro (T Holmes, 54), A Ashe.

Referee: B Whitehouse (Wales)

Attendance: 4,000