Following Glasgow Warriors’ 47-27 victory over Sale Sharks, here are our five takeaways from the Investec Champions Cup clash at CorpAcq Stadium.
The top line
Franco Smith’s side is up and running in the Champions Cup with an emphatic bonus-point victory over Sale Sharks in Pool 1.
The hosts may have drawn first blood with Ben Curry muscling his way over in the early stages, but ultimately it was the Glasgow maul that was the difference today, even with the Warriors losing the collision battle time and time again.
Arron Reed extended Sale’s lead before the Warriors maul really came to the fore, winning a penalty try with Gus Warr sent to the sin bin. Tom Roebuck quickly followed his scrum-half to the naughty chair.
Kyle Steyn and Jamie Dobie wreaked havoc before the break, both touching down the latter after assisting the former to give the visitors a 21-15 lead at the break.
While Reketi Ma’asi-White hit back for Sale after Alex Craig’s try and Reed grabbed another after Rory Darge bundled over, Glasgow really took control of the fixture in the final ten minutes with Ollie Smith and Tavi Tuipulotu crossing the whitewash to seal the win.
Contrasting starts
Neither team have truly hit their stride so far this season and that was perfectly demonstrated by Saturday’s clash. Glasgow were slow to start with Sale’s physicality continually sending the Scotsmen into reverse. It resulted in a pair of tries for the hosts, both quite well worked, with a dummy maul leading to Ben Curry going over and good hands enabling Reed to cross the whitewash.
The Warriors, desperate to make up for last year’s Champions Cup disappointment, were surprisingly soft and lost pretty much every close-quarter contact. However, they can always rely on their trusty maul, even when things are going badly, and that ultimately changed the momentum of the match.
They earned a penalty try thanks to both the pressure they exerted and the Sharks’ penchant to do the brainless, and for the next 20 minutes Glasgow looked more like the side we have become used to seeing. Sione Tuipulotu started to tick in midfield, George Horne was directing proceedings from half-back and their whole pack began to make some devastating carries.
As a result, they touched down twice more via Steyn and Dobie, showing exactly what they are capable, but they will be frustrated by their sometimes slack starts. Sale themselves will be annoyed they couldn’t continue the momentum with neither side particularly playing well at the same time.
The maul
The maul was the turning point today for the Warriors as mentioned above. It has been a trusty weapon for the Scottish outfit since Smith took charge of the club and with World Rugby adjusting the laws, it has become even more potent.
Starring down a 12-0 deficit, the driving maul supercharged Glasgow back into the game with Sale falling victim to the penalty try double-whammy and a yellow card.
While the backs certainly deserve credit for their creativity and ingenuity in attack to rip open the Sale defence, the platform laid through the lineout and maul certainly made it all possible.
The penalty try paired with Darge and Tuipulotu’s tries were not only wrapped up the win for the Warriors but also ensured that they left Salford with a bonus point.
Smith will be pleased with the driving maul’s success today but will be well aware that improvements in other areas of their game are desperately needed if they are to go deep into this competition.
Discipline
You have to credit Glasgow for their response to going behind but, from Alex Sanderson’s point of view, he will once again point to their inability to get on the right side of the referee. They had started so well, were playing with fluency and then within two minutes found themselves down to 13 men and on the back foot.
Both were utterly pointless too. While it is difficult to tell a player not to intervene when a maul is charging towards your line, when you are a scrum-half, it is probably best to stay out of it. Warr could not resist, however, and cost his side a penalty try and their half-back for 10 minutes.
Warr was soon followed off the field by England international Roebuck who, on his first appearance of the season, tripped Scotland’s Steyn and was quite rightly sin-binned. To Sale’s credit, they only lost that period 7-3 but, by that point, all momentum they had generated in the opening 10 minutes had been lost.
It has been a theme in Sale’s campaign so far, despite the two wins they have garnered in the PREM, and they very much need to rectify it or else they won’t be challengers in the big competitions this season.
Test watch
It was certainly a match not short on stars and, even though the quality was only intermittent, certain individuals produced some moments of excellence in what was a tight encounter in Greater Manchester.
Glasgow were littered with Scotland players and Tuipulotu and Horne particularly showed their class while Dobie and Steyn and Stafford McDowall had their moments throughout the contest.
Up front, Darge and Scott Cummings produced their usual hard-working shifts, but it was a statement display from hooker Seb Stephen. Against a big Sharks pack, the hooker carried well throughout his time on the field and hit just as hard on defence in a performance which would have pleased Gregor Townsend.
As for Sale, they had a number of England possibles alongside regular members of the 23, Tom Curry and Luke Cowan-Dickie, who both had their moments. Tom’s brother, Ben, is among those looking to put himself in contention with, while Roebuck, Joe Marchant, Ma’asi-White, Ben Bamber, Courtney Lawes, Joe Carpenter, Nathan Jibulu and Asher Opoku-Fordjour are all there or thereabouts.
However, only Lawes really enhanced his claim after the old warhorse produced a big 50-odd minutes to suggest he could still be a factor at Test level. He has returned to England in an attempt to push for a Rugby World Cup place and Borthwick would be stupid to discard him after he impressed here.