When the Emirates Lions cut loose at Ellis Park last May, they put a large, if temporary, dent in Glasgow’s URC title hopes. Such an outcome was never on the cards on Saturday night as Franco Smith’s charges ran amok, racking up 42 unanswered points in the first half then coasting through the second.
The Warriors had big performers all over the field, but the night belonged to George Horne, who became the club’s all-time leading try scorer when he crossed for his 55th ten minutes from half-time.
Even recalling that epic 43-0 win at Welford Road back in 2017, you rather suspect it will be nothing like as one-sided when Glasgow host Leicester Tigers in the last-16 of the Champions Cup on Saturday night, but the Scots could not have asked for a better springboard into the next stage of their European adventure.
The Scotstoun posts were swaying like a gaggle of Saturday night drunks as squally showers swept the west. It was warmer down in Johannesburg, but there has been a fair bit of rain around in South Africa’s biggest city too, so there seemed little danger of the visitors being caught unawares by the conditions.
Glasgow were forced into a late change, Jack Mann dropping out of the back row to be replaced by Henco Henter with Jare Oguntibeju coming onto the bench.
Doubtless keen to avoid another of the slow starts which have hampered them since the start of the year, Smith’s men flew out of the blocks and had already worked up a considerable head of steam by the time Nathan McBeth barged over for their first try five minutes in. It was the loose-head prop’s fourth score in as many games, the Lions paying the price for a botched exit which saw them kick a penalty to touch and make only a handful of metres before losing the lineout for good measure.
Stafford McDowall, the Scotland centre, showed them the way with a beauty of a left-footed 50-22 that allowed the home pack to get a rumble on once more. There was a real bite and purpose to the Warriors’ work, and it was no surprise to find them soon doubling up in the wake of some neat handling from backs and forwards alike.
Jamie Dobie was the marksman, pouching a snap pass from George Horne out left and beating the final cover on the dive. Dobie thought he was in again shortly afterwards as Adam Hastings fizzed a pass across the face, but the Lions scrambled well in the corner to get underneath Dobie and hold him up.
The traffic was entirely one-way, though, and the same home pair combined for the third try after 26 minutes. Hastings’ scoring pass was a much less extravagant affair this time, but the same could not be said for Dobie’s brilliant step and surge from the 22m line.
There was a certain inevitability to Horne getting in on the act and, sure enough, cometh the half-hour, cometh the little big man. It was the fruit of another sweeping, flowing move that had Dobie turning provider, and as so often in that record-breaking run, Horne was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to finish the job. With Hastings exploiting that vicious tailwind to land all the conversions, Glasgow were already miles out of sight.
The pivot then went it alone from deep in the Lions 22 before Grant Stewart, the hooker, crossed for the sixth with the clock two minutes into the red. Hastings added the extras to make it a 42-0 interval lead, with the scrum half Nico Steyn having also been sent to the sin-bin after a cluster of offences from the visitors, who had not so much run into a storm but a sinkhole.
Ivan van Rooyen’s side ran riot in the second half of that previous match-up last May, but even another belated five-try salvo here would not have been enough to turn things around.
In any event, there was very little sign of it as Glasgow kept their foot to the floor, Horne eyeing a brace following a bullocking break from Kyle Steyn. Smith was able to wheel on the Scotland Six Nations props Zander Fagerson and Rory Sutherland, while Hastings made way for the wing Sebastian Cancelliere. This necessitated a backline switch-up, with Tom Jordan taking over at fly half and Steyn moving to the centres.
Cancelliere had the crowd out of their seats with an exquisite dart and even better offload that sent Horne streaking down the wing, only for the officials to call the assist as forward.
Horne was cheered to the rafters when Ben Afshar replaced him for the final 12 minutes. Scotstoun’s collective attention had otherwise long since turned to what is coming next.
Scorers: Glasgow Warriors: Tries McBeth (5min), Dobie (18min, 26min), Horne (30min), Hastings (38min), Stewart (40+2min) Cons Hastings (6).
Glasgow Warriors K Rowe; J Dobie, S McDowall, T Jordan, K Steyn (capt); A Hastings (S Cancelliere 53min), G Horne (B Afshar 68min); N McBeth (R Sutherland 53min), G Stewart (J Matthews 53min), S Talakai (Z Fagerson 53min), G Brown (J Oguntibeju 73min), JP Du Preez (R Darge 57min), E Ferrie, S Vailanu (A Samuel 53min), H Venter.
Emirates Lions Q Horn; R Kriel, M Rass (R Jonker 41min), M Louw, E van der Merwe; G Lombard (L Horn 71min), N Steyn; J Schoeman (SJ Kotze 49min), PJ Botha (F Marais 53min), A Ntlabakanye (RF Schoeman 53min), R Schoeman (S Qoma 50min), D Landsberg (R Delport 70min), JC Pretorius (J Cairns 64min), R Venter, F Horn (capt). Yellow card Steyn (40+2min)
Referee G Gnecchi (FIR). Attendance 6,629.
