November 16, 2007

Glasgow Warriors 41 - 31 Viadana

Heineken Cup match played at Firhill on Friday November 16th 2007 | 10 comments

Sam Pinder's try gave Glasgow a bonus point Glasgow Warriors grabbed the bonus point they needed to keep alive their hopes of claiming a Heineken Cup quarter-final ticket with victory over Arix Viadana.

But they made dreadfully heavy going of snuffing out the challenge of the Italian underdogs at Firhill.

Sean Lineen's men looked on course to romp to an emphatic success when they created a 17-point lead.

However, they surrendered the initiative and ended up scrambling to a far from convincing win - the tide only turning back in their favour when Viadana had two men in the sin-bin.

And their carelessness could prove to be their undoing if qualification boils down to points difference.

Calvin Howarth had given his former Glasgow team-mates an early wake-up call as the visitors raced into a shock lead.

With only three minutes on the clock, he launched a massive clearance into enemy territory where Bernie Stortoni fatally hesitated.

In dashed winger Hayden Pedersen to scoop up the loose ball and cruise in for a try under the crossbar, handing Howarth a formality of a conversion.

Rattled Warriors hit back with a lucky touchdown from Hefin O'Hare. Stortoni made amends for his earlier gaffe by shrugging off four challenges.

O'Hare lost his grip on the ball, which freakishly bounced back into his arms to enable him to finish.

Dan Parks slotted the extra points and then banged over a 40-metre penalty awarded for offside.

That was the cue for Glasgow to slip into gear and they appeared to take control with a quickfire burst of scores by Parks and recalled centre Graeme Morrison.

Parks goaled them both to open up a 17-point gap midway through the half and it seemed only a matter of time before they would claim the bonus point.

But it was Viadana who bagged the next score in the wake of another defensive slip, this time by Johnny Beattie, and again Pedersen was the beneficiary.

Howarth converted, however his next penalty attempt fell marginally short.

He rediscovered his touch two minutes after the restart with a well-struck angled effort from 40 metres to give the Warriors a further jolt.

Even worse was to come for Glasgow as Aldo Birchall pounced for Viadana's third try following a quickly-taken tapped penalty. Howarth's kick tied the contest.

The Italians were reduced to 13 when Birchall and Dion Waller were yellow-carded - but still the Warriors struggled to impose themselves.

Substitute scrum-half Sam Pinder eased the jitters as he darted over from close quarters for the all-important fourth score.

And at last they made their experience count with a try by John Barclay with Parks taking his personal tally to 21 points.

But the Italians had the last word with a chip-and-chase counter from Steven Bortolussi, converted by Howarth.

Report from Sporting Life

Referee James Jones (Wales)
Attendance 1722
Man of the Match Dan Parks continued his rich vein of form with a 21-point haul
Team
1
Justin Va'a
2
Fergus Thomson
3
Moray Low
4
Dan Turner
5
Alastair Kellock
6
Kelly Brown
7
John Barclay
8
John Beattie
9
Chris O'Young
10
Dan Parks
11
Lome Fa'atau
12
Scott Barrow
13
Graeme Morrison
14
Lome Fa'atau
15
Bernardo Stortoni
Sub
Eric Milligan
Sub
Ed Kalman
Sub
Opeta Palepoi
Sub
James Eddie
Sub
Sam Pinder
Sub
Colin Gregor
Sub
Andrew Henderson
Match Substitutions
Off On
Chris O'Young Sam Pinder
Off On
Moray Low Ed Kalman
Off On
Dan Turner Opeta Palepoi
Off On
Scott Barrow Andrew Henderson
Off On
John Beattie James Eddie
Off On
Fergus Thomson Eric Milligan
Off On
Bernardo Stortoni Colin Gregor
Scorers
Hefin O'Hare Try 
Dan Parks Conversion
Dan Parks Penalty
Dan Parks Try 
Dan Parks Conversion
Graeme Morrison Try 
Dan Parks Conversion
Dan Parks Penalty
Sam Pinder Try 
Dan Parks Conversion
John Barclay Try 
Dan Parks Conversion
Audio
Press play to listen to Dan Parks speaking on ercrugby.com or open the player in a new window (requires Adobe Flash.)
Comments
Posted by Scott on November 17, 2007 10:45 AM | Reply to this comment

Where do these figures come from? Does anyone else think there more than 1700 people at the game? I'm gonna check out the Firhill capacity figures - it was surely about half full??

Very frustrating game - Glasgow have all the talent - but need to tighten up - we let them back in TWICE!!!!

Posted by Alistair on November 17, 2007 04:17 PM | Reply to this comment

The Jackie Husband stand has a 6200 capacity. 1700 as an attendance figure is a big bag of rubbish.

Funnily enough so was the game. There was a basic lack of respect shown by some of the players for Viadana, Stortoni I'm looking at you. We seemed to forget that we had forwards that we could use. Another performance like that and we can kiss our season good-bye.

Posted by Scott on November 18, 2007 11:27 AM | Reply to this comment

In that case I would say there were over 4000 people there! If ound it difficult to find a seat! Glasgow's attendance figures always seem to be reported low.... oh, well. Best players on Friday were Parks, Barclay, Brown and that's about it...

Posted by mediumsizedal on November 17, 2007 05:06 PM | Reply to this comment

Thought the crowd was as good as last home game & that was given as about 2700. Don't just name Stortoni for the miserable performance-yes he made 1 howler (looked as if he lost the flight of the ball in the lights) and other smaller errors, but at least he is willing to try things and look for gaps & angles-don't forget his breaks made 2 tries. O'Hare did his usual, although even he dropped 1 try scoring pass. Barrow had the jitters early as well, but again at least he was getting half breaks. Morrison had 1 half break that led to a try but he just doesn't do enough for me. Fa'atau was a waste of space- I don't think he has played well in any game so far, & even Parks had a very mixed game-his kicking from hand was not up to his usual standard and he gave Barrow at least half a dozen hospital passes. However it was the forwards who looked slow, lacklustre and often uninterested-Viadana won numerous turnovers and looked the stronger physically. Lineout was good & scrum OK but ball retention & presentation from the loose were poor. Barclay was probably the one foeward exempt from criticism. Too many basic errors,BUT they got the 5 points-so move on and hope the errors are ironed out before the Cardiff game. (PS-didn't think much of the ref!!).

Posted by sunday5 on November 18, 2007 11:53 AM | Reply to this comment

I thought Fa'atau was dreadfull. Stortoni did gift them their early try but at least he works for a living and always looks dangerous. Fa'atau on the other hand looks lazy and never even interested. I can't imagine he was cheap either. A good degree of finger extraction is needed here. He seems to have turned up in the Magners League thinking he is good enough to sit on his laurels after the rigours of the Super 14's and will still score tries. So far however he is a weak link in the side.

Posted by sunday5 on November 18, 2007 12:05 PM | Reply to this comment

Also, the crowd MUST'VE been bigger than 1700 and Kelly Brown looks very, very strong. He's arguably our best signing this season.

Posted by KatieR on November 19, 2007 09:06 AM | Reply to this comment

Couldn't agree more sunday5, Kelly Brown very impressive, Lome awful so far. We are effectively a man short when he is on the pitch.

Posted by hannah on November 19, 2007 09:58 AM | Reply to this comment

How wrong was everyone after the world cup games...we all thought that Lome was going to be a good thing for glasgow and that he would take us forward. The only thing the guy did was rip his shorts. We could have easily chased down one or two more tries if he had run just a bit faster...actually if he had run at all!

Posted by hannah on November 19, 2007 09:58 AM | Reply to this comment

How wrong was everyone after the world cup games...we all thought that Lome was going to be a good thing for glasgow and that he would take us forward. The only thing the guy did was rip his shorts. We could have easily chased down one or two more tries if he had run just a bit faster...actually if he had run at all!

Posted by jim brodie on November 19, 2007 02:34 PM | Reply to this comment

with parks in the team we need to play a tight game. forget the fancy stuff.we should use our dynamic back row and get the scrum working again. Give moray a couple of weeks off then unleash him against biarritz.Kalman looks ok
dispatch lome, their guy ripped his tights which summed up his performance! henderson 12 and barrow deserves a run at 13
bring on the blues so we can shut jonathan davies up and get an explanation of the 'low'crowds.
I am a season ticket holder at the jags who get about 2,700 and crowds appear similar. sean, keep up the good work

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