Glasgow were left in no doubt about just how much they have to improve before their European campaign begins next month.
Yesterday, at Braidholm, London Scottish set a pre-season benchmark to which Glasgow will not only have to aspire, but will have to surpass, if they are to survive against the likes of Wasps. Admittedly, there are a still a few positional problems to be sorted out in the Glasgow squad, but the evidence from this first outing was that there is much work to be done on a number of basics, among which ball retention and ball winning under the new laws will be a high priority.
For London Scottish, this too was a first game, albeit that they played a trial match last weekend. However, although there was some rustiness about the Exiles' performance, their manager, John Steele, was satisfied with the outing.
''We have been working hard all summer on strength work and I think that this showed through against Glasgow,'' said Steele, who watched his forwards gain the advantage from the start. For their part, Glasgow tended to take contact too often and were guilty of poor ball retention.
However, when Glasgow did move the ball into space, they looked far more purposeful, Derek Stark in particular posing a threat.
Elsewhere, Cammie Little did enough to merit a further run at stand-off and Andrew Ness, coming on as a replacement, provided pace in the back row as Scottish, showing good team cohesion, were soon into their stride. A try by Mick Watson, the Exiles No.8, scored from his quickly taken tap penalty on the Glasgow line.
Glasgow's consolation came from a superb flowing try finished off by Alan Bulloch in the first half and a Ness try after the break.
Scorers: Glasgow - A Bulloch 1t, Ness 1t, Little 1p, Cossey 1c. London Scottish - Lee 3p, 4c, Davies 1t, Thompson 1t, Johnston 1t, Allan 1t, Hunter 1t, Watson 1t, Cameron 1c.
Glasgow - C Sangster (Stirling County); D Stark (Glasgow Hawks), A Bulloch (West of Scotland), C Simmers (Glasgow Hawks), J Craig (West of Scotland); C Little (Glasgow Hawks), F Stott (West of Scotland); G Isaac (Kilmarnock Falcons), G Bulloch (West of Scotland) captain, G McIlwham (Glasgow Hawks), S Begley (Glasgow Hawks), G Perrett (West of Scotland), F Wallace (Glasgow Hawks), D McLeish (West of Scotland), G Mackay (Glasgow Hawks). Replacements - J Weston (Watsonians) for Stott, M Norval (Stirling County) for Begley, G Metcalfe (Glasgow Hawks) for Stark, J McLaren (Stirling County) for A Bulloch, all 40 mins, A Perrie (Glasgow Hawks) for Isaac, A Ness (Glasgow Hawks) for Mackay, E Cossey (Glasgow Southern) for Little.
London Scottish - D Lee; K Milligan, R Davies, R Eriksson, G Thompson; J Cameron, S Cook; P Johnston, J Allan, P Burnell, E Jones, R Hunter, C Tarbuck, M Watson, S Holmes. Replacements - C Smith for Thompson (50 mins), C Morley for Cook (59), T Jankovich for Tarbuck (67), I McAusland for Cameron (68).
Referee - R Dickson (Madras College FP).
Glasgow............................15
London Scottish...............49
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article