GLASGOW Warriors secured top spot in Pro14 Conference A to earn a home semi-final in the play-offs.

And, if it was far from their most stylish performance of the season, it was more than good enough against the gritty men of Galway.

“We had a job to do tonight and we did it,” was head coach Dave Rennie’s verdict afterwards. 

“I am happy. We have a couple of weeks to go but it is good to have secured a home semi. It is great we will be coming back to play in front of a home crowd in a few weeks’ time.

“It was a pretty good first half. After the first couple of minutes we were pretty clinical. We carried well and generated quick ball and put them under a hell of a lot of pressure.”

As play got underway it looked possible that the job would be done for them 9000 miles away since the Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs, who had previously lost just one home game all season to Glasgow, looked to be on course for a victory that would mean second-placed Munster could not catch the Conference A leaders.

Whether or not they were aware that the 10-point lead the South African side was holding as their match got underway, the home side could hardly have started more sloppily. 

At pretty much the first play they conceded a penalty in their own 22 for an illegal clear-out then, as their opponents set up a lineout drive, entered the maul from the side, that offence taking the pressure off the visitors as they headed for the line and tighthead prop Finlay Bealham squirmed his way over for a score that was confirmed after consultation with the replay official.

The response was rather more stylish and ultimately more effective since it generated a full seven points after DTH van der Merwe came over from his left wing to get involved in the midfield as the ball was shifted from left to right, took the ball at pace and slipped two tackles before sending the supporting Stuart Hogg over for a try that Peter Horne converted to nudge his side ahead.

As the Warriors began to impose themselves Horne knocked over a hat-trick of penalties to put his side 11 points clear early in the second 
quarter, rather more in keeping with pre-match expectations.

Jack Carty responded with a long range penalty strike, his first success, but that still left his side two scores behind at 16-8 and the Warriors took full control when Alex Dunbar, making his first appearance in close to three months, took a short pass from Horne at full tilt, bursting through the defence 40 metres out and charging all the way to the line to mark his comeback with a try.

News was filtering through by then that Munster had got their noses in front, but that was rendered wholly irrelevant in first half injury time as the Warriors pack patiently worked their way to the try line, then over it, Fraser Brown claiming the try which Horne converted to make it a comfortable 30-8 margin at the interval.

All that was left to establish was whether they wrapped up the league section of the campaign with yet another four-try bonus point and it was duly registered little more than three minutes into the second half when Horne and Dunbar manufactured running room for Matt Fagerson who carried it to within 10 metres before feeding Henry Pyrgos who managed to ground the ball against the goal-post.

Bizarrely, with his easiest opportunity of the night, Horne lost concentration and failed to get his point-blank range conversion over the bar, slightly tarnishing an otherwise accomplished play-making performance, but it was not enough to deny him a deserved man-of-the-match award.

That set the tone for something of a drop in intensity from the Warriors over the remainder of the third quarter which ended with a long spell of Connacht pressure with several close range scrummage penalties accrued, leading to the sin-binning of Alex Allan.

The 14 men got close to holding out, but just before they were due to return to full strength Stacey Ili broke through and fed fellow replacement Caolin Blade, who shrugged off two tackles to score, Carty converting.

They had to spend the last five minutes a man short, too, after Rob Harley was sin-binned for mauling illegally and Connacht were awarded a penalty try after the home pack illegally spun a scrum when being drive towards their own line.

It was not the most edifying way for proceedings to end, but the hard work had been done in the course of the first three quarters of an hour and, of course, the 18 matches that preceded it.