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December 16, 2007

Biarritz 21 - 14 Glasgow Warriors

Heineken Cup match played at Parc des Sports Aquiléra on Friday December 14th 2007 | 5 comments

John Beattie was the official man-of-the-match for the second week running
Battling Glasgow were denied a Heineken Cup double over Biarritz after conceding two late tries.

The visitors led for 75 minutes thanks to some brave defending and a wonderful breakaway try from John Barclay.

Dan Parks slotted two penalties and a second half drop-goal but Damien Traille's kicking kept the hosts in it.

Biarritz cranked up the pressure in the closing stages and, following Justin Va'a's sin-binning, Samiu Vahafolau crashed over for two late scores.

The French side move top of Pool 4, with Glasgow slipping back to third spot behind Saracens, who visit Viadana on Saturday.

Glasgow could not have dreamed of a more inspiring start as they opened up an 11-point lead in the first quarter.

Parks took advantage of some sloppy play from the over-anxious home side to slot over two penalties.

Even better was to come for the Warriors when Barclay burst clear of a crowd of markers and beat American winger Takudzwa Ngwenya in a race from 35 metres.

Tenacious tackling and clever marshalling by the Glasgow defence staved off a reply, but they were powerless to stop Traille getting his team off the mark nine minutes before the break with a simple penalty.

Traille added two more strikes, with Parks slotting an opportunist drop-goal in between.

With the clock ticking down and the home side pouring forward, Va'a, who had re-entered the action, was yellow-carded for lashing out in retaliation.

Biarritz spurned the chance of three points and instead went for position in the corner in their bid for a try.

And their enterprise paid off as substitute Vahafolau plunged over for the score, goaled by Traille.

Vahafolau completed his last-gasp double after a Parks drop-goal attempt was blocked.

Glasgow head coach Sean Lineen said: "I'm exceptionally proud of a bunch of guys who gave everything.

"They can hold their heads up very high after what was an outstanding defensive display.

"We put up one hell of a fight and we're not dead in this group yet."

Dan Parks said: "I connected pretty well and it was probably going through but luck was not on my side on this occasion.

"But to go to France and play like that in front of a hostile crowd was a fine achievement.

"We're still in the tournament and must now take full points against Viadana in Italy."

Referee Nigel Owens (Wales)
Attendance 7,200
Man of the Match John Beattie, but pushed all the way by John Barclay.
Team
1
Justin Va'a
2
Fergus Thomson
3
Moray Low
4
Andy Newman
5
Dan Turner
6
Kelly Brown
7
John Barclay
8
John Beattie
9
Sam Pinder
10
Dan Parks
11
Hefin O'Hare
12
Daryl Gibson
13
Andrew Henderson
14
Lome Fa'atau
15
Bernardo Stortoni
Sub
Eric Milligan
Sub
Ed Kalman
Sub
Opeta Palepoi
Sub
James Eddie
Sub
Chris O'Young
Sub
Scott Barrow
Sub
Graeme Morrison
Match Substitutions
Off On
Justin Va'a Ed Kalman
Off On
Sam Pinder Chris O'Young
Off On
Moray Low Justin Va'a
Off On
Andy Newman Opeta Palepoi
Off On
Daryl Gibson Graeme Morrison
Off On
John Barclay James Eddie
Scorers
Dan Parks Penalty
Dan Parks Penalty
John Barclay Try 
Dan Parks Drop
Audio
Press play to listen to BBC Scotland's John Beattie interviewing Sean Lineen or open the player in a new window (requires Adobe Flash.)
Comments
Posted by sunday5 on December 15, 2007 06:58 PM | Reply to this comment

The Glasgow support were superb! You could really hear them when Barclay went over. What a game tho, our lads did us and themselves proud. We deserved it and would've had it if the ref had sent some of those filthy French players from the field. I'm all for a bit of rough and tumble during a game, it's all part of it but you don't go stamping on players faces and blatantly attempt to cause them serious injury. A poor show from Biarritz.

Just a great sight to see tho, a rampant Warriors side in full flow! Lets hope they keep this up. This team could become something very special...

Posted by jagswarrior on December 15, 2007 10:33 PM | Reply to this comment

That was a magnificent performance and we were comfortably defending till the ridiculous yellow.The 3 B's as usual world class and should go straight into Scotland team as a unit.

Lineen will take us to the next step which the English coach guy hinted on commentary which is a bit more belief in our counter attack. He was impressed with the whole team and rugby is beginning to believe we have at last got something going here.

Posted by ecks tartan army on December 16, 2007 11:53 AM | Reply to this comment

Fantastic game, absolutly gutted with the end result but I am proud to be a Warriors supporter this weekend. Saracens failed to get the bonus away to Viadana (trailling 26-3 at HT) but i suspect that is, at least in part, down to Sarries complacency. Any win over Viadana, coupled with a Saracens victory at VR, will bring it down to the last game.

And as said above, our support were absolutly fantastic. However heres hoping there will be much more of us travelling for a quarter final in march!

Posted by bossco85 on December 16, 2007 02:52 PM | Reply to this comment

Very very proud of the boys. Heroic defence for the whole match! every single one tackled their hearts out and we took or chances when we had them! A brilliant performance, shame about the result but thats sport! This team is going places, what a time to be a glasgow supporter!

Posted by mediumsizedal on December 16, 2007 06:39 PM | Reply to this comment

Agree with what's been said-the boy's have sometimes been criticised over the years for sometimes not putting in enough effort in defeat, but this side now have the mental & physical toughness to go for the 80-odd minutes. You can't ask for any more than that the team puts in their best effort and last Sunday & on Friday they ran themselves into the ground-every one of them put in a performance to be proud of-they didn't win on Friday, but they went down with all guns blazing!! Let's hope they can keep the fire going for the rest of the season & hopefully they can still qualify for the next round.

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