Glasgow Warriors 20-9 Stormers: First-half burst gives hosts victory
Written by I Dig SportsTwo tries from the prolific Johnny Matthews helped Glasgow Warriors to victory over United Rugby Championship leaders Stormers at Scotstoun.
Sione Tuipulotu opened the scoring for Warriors before Matthews' double gave the home side an 20-9 lead at the break.
Glasgow had to withstand long spells of pressure in a second-half that ultimately ended pointless.
The win moves Glasgow up to second in the table behind the Stormers.
The last meeting between these sides back in January was one of the most enthralling encounters of the season, with Glasgow snatching a dramatic 24-17 victory in the final play. This match never quite burst into life in the same manner.
The home side, looking to bounce back after last weekend's defeat by Connacht in Galway, made promising early breaks through Matthews and Sebastian Cancelliere, but the only points of the opening quarter came courtesy of a penalty from Stormers centre Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
The game was meandering along a bit lifelessly until Tuipulotu ghosted through a midfield move to cruise in untouched and dot down under the posts.
It was not along until Glasgow were over again, Matthews doing what he does best by finishing off a powerful rolling lineout maul.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu's boot was keeping Stormers within touching distance, that was until Matthews powered over again in the last play of the half to open up an 11-point advantage.
The Stormers came out with renewed vigour after the break and battered away at the Glasgow line, but some superb Warriors defence kept the South Africans out.
The game had descended into a scrap with dropped balls all over the place and while the Stormers looked to be running out of ideas, Glasgow were also unable to string together any meaningful attacks.
Warriors finally found some field position from which to apply some pressure late in the game but could not fashion an opening that would have brought their fourth try and with it the bonus point.
That may well be a source of frustration for head coach Franco Smith, but his side are back to winning ways and next up is a trip to Wales to take on Ospreys next Saturday.
Glasgow head coach Franco Smith on Viaplay: "The amount of opportunities we created [was a positive]. Disappointed we couldn't get the fourth try but our guys really stayed in the fight. I feel there were a lot of the same errors as last week, but now we go on to the next game."
Glasgow Warriors centre Sione Tuipulotu on Viaplay: "It's nice to come home and we got a win against a pretty decent side. We didn't have to do much defending tonight because the forwards really stood up, especially at set piece. There's still a lot to work on and hopefully we can kick on."
Glasgow Warriors: Smith, Cancelliere, Tuipulotu, McDowall, Rowe, Jordan, G Horne, Kebble, Matthews, Z Fagerson, Peterson, Gray, M Fagerson, Darge, Vailanu.
Replacements: Fraser, Bhatti, Sordoni, Cummings, Samuel, Venter, Dobie, Weir.
Stormers: Gelant, Davids, Loader, Mngomezulu, Zas, D du Plessis, Jantjies, Vermaak, Dweba, Fouche, Dixon, Van Heerden, Engelbrecht, Roos, Morabe.
Replacements: Venter, Gqoboka, Harris, Smith, Porter, Theunissen, Ungerer, Blommetjies.