A DREADFUL showing in the loose, where they conceded turnover after turnover on the rare times they managed to hang onto the ball for any length of time, plunged Glasgow Warriors out of the top four of the Guinness PRO12 as they conceded a double to the Scarlets from Wales.
They drop to fifth, but are only three points ahead of Ulster who have a game in hand, and know they need to sort out their handling and breakdown work if they are to have any chance of getting back into the top four.
"We were not as accurate as we had been in training," admitted Gregor Townsend, the head coach, afterwards. "What hurt us was not looking after the ball in our third which allowed them go put pressure on us.
"The breakdown was a problem. Partly it was the emphasis the Scarlets were able to put on us there but there were a couple of things that were our fault. We got the ball ripped from us a couple of times, there was one where someone kicked the ball out. These are things we don't often see; one of those nights when things don't go the way you want them to."
With both sides missing players on international duty over the weekend, it was very much a test of their strength in depth. Though Glasgow were able to welcome back a trio of their long-term injured, it was still a much-changed side from the one they have been using recently with 12 players involved in the game in Paris tomorrow, and Ryan Wilson missing out only through injury.
For all that, Glasgow were still the first into their stride with the first scrum going down and Rory Clegg, the fly half, kicking the points, only for a mix-up in defence to hand the Welsh a levelling chance, which Daniel Jones, their fly half, took comfortably.
Glasgow were dominating early possession but it was a break from their own half, that brought them their next chance with Clegg kicking through and Sam Johnson taking he ball on before he was taken out illegally by Jones, who ended in the sin bin as a result.
The home side took full advantage of the position with a maul to the line ending when Pat MacArthur, the hooker, reached out to score the opening try. That only seemed to inspire the visitors, though, and instead of feeling the pressure a man down they were quickly down the other end and tempted Henry Pyrgos, out of the defensive line to leave space for Tom Williams to score.
Williams also converted before an exchange of penalties that kept the Welsh narrowly in front before the momentum turned decisively the Welsh way as they started to hang onto the ball for longer and longer while Glasgow struggled to make anything of the limited possession they won.
The Scarlets had had chances before they eventually made the possession pay with DTH van der Merwe, almost getting over on the left before the ball switched across the field and James Davies, the flanker, had space to cross for the second try on the stroke of half time.
The Scarlets did get lucky when Tom Price, the lock clearly charged into a ruck and took out Rory Hughes with an illegal shoulder charge but got away with only a penalty, with Glasgow making a mess of the resulting pressre.
What the Scots could not manage was to hang onto the ball. Every attack seemed to end in a handling mistake or a turnover, with the Scarlets on 18 turnovers as the Scots found their all-action back row too hot to handle.
The few times the Scot did manage to keep hold of the ball for any length of time, all the Scarlets had to do was hold their shape in defence in the certain knowledge that they would not have to wait for long before the Scots would hand the ball back to them with Aled Thomas putting the result out of sight with a final penalty.
"There were individual things we did well, but they did not go into a multiphase attack. We need to work more as a team – that was the first time this team has played but it is not going to change much over the next four weeks. It was a tough loss but to get back into the top four, we are going to have to win our next few matches," Townsend finished.
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