Glasgow Warriors kept up their impressive home record as they dealt the Vodacom Bulls their first defeat of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season with a 35-21 win on Saturday night.
On a night where the Bulls needed to front up, they delivered a damp squib performance far under their own standards as they had conceded a bonus point by halftime and never looked to be in the game.
It was a night where the Glasgow Rain must have felt like needles, but the Bulls will know they were never in the contest, and never really fired a shot. In short, they were beaten from the moment they got onto the pitch.
It wasn’t anything sinister, the Bulls were just second best when it came to the breakdown, the setpieces and the general play. They looked a second off the pace, they looked slow and lethargic as opposed to a Glasgow side that was on their game, full of pace and deserved the advantage they got from the referee in the process.
To see a Bulls side, get into the opposition 22 nine times and not be able to convert once, and in the process concede several penalties tells a story. But it is a story where they played as individuals rather as a unit and belied the three wins at home that put them high up on the log.
It was a performance that the Bulls will need to reflect on, and will be one which if they don’t rectify, could cost them dearly in their hopes of going better than their final performance last season.
While they only gave away 12 penalties in the game, the Bulls will know that at least three quarter of those came in the red zone when they needed to assert their dominance.
Instead, they were dominated in a fashion that we haven’t seen since their defeat at the hands of Connacht last season and one which the Bulls will not be proud of.
Glasgow scored in the sixth minute to set the trend as the rain poured down. Zander Fagerson went over from close range to open the scoring and from there Franco Smith’s side never looked back.
From there it was Sebastian Cancelliere, who added to the scoresheet, and then Scott Cummings, with Kurt-Lee Arendse adding the only score for the Bulls in the half with a turnover try against the run of play.
The bonus point came late in the first half as scrumhalf George Horne turned the Bulls ineffective defence inside out and made it all the way to the line to give Glasgow a 28-7 halftime lead.
The second half just went from bad to worse, as fullback Josh McKay scored and the Warriors could have added several more to their score, had it not been for handling mistakes and overeagerness.
The Bulls added late tries to Bismarck du Plessis and Janko Swanepoel, making the scoreline look respectable, but they were beaten early on and never recovered.
It was a night they would rather forget as quickly as possible.
Scorers
Glasgow Warriors – Tries:Zander Fagerson, Sebastien Cancelliere, Scott Cummings, George Horne, Josh McKay. Conversions:Horne (5).
Vodacom Bulls – Tries:Kurt-Lee Arendse, Bismarck du Plessis, Janko Swanepoel. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morne Steyn.