A last-gasp try from Argentina wing Sebastian Cancellieri grabbed the Glasgow Warriors a dramatic 24-17 win over the DHL Stormers at Scotstoun in Glasgow in a Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash that produced high quality and spectacular rugby on Sunday.
Apart from it being a game where that old cliché that rugby was the winner ran true, it was also a triumph for several South African connected people in the Glasgow outfit, with former Stormers centre Huw Jones the deserved recipient of the man of the match award, and Kyle Steyn scoring a try.
But no-one was more a winner on the day than Glasgow’s former Springbok assistant coach and Cheetahs mentor Franco Smith.
Late heartbreak in Glasgow as the home side score at the death to claim the win. We take one bonus point away for our efforts. #GLAvSTO #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/RvNvGm4rRN
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 8, 2023
The Stormers’ comprehensive win over the Warriors, when the visitors spoke afterwards about the outstanding offload game of the hosts, was probably one of the main reasons the Scottish team changed their coach.
Well, they’ve learned from what was drummed out to them at DHL Stadium, with this being their sixth successive victory and it being achieved with a game, with the Glasgow willingness to attack from deep and the way they exploited their defence out wide, that was very similar to what the Stormers do to their opponents.
There will be many Stormers fans who will refer to some of the Glasgow tries, particularly the two scored in the first half and the one scored by Jones, as soft, but they were the sort of tries the Cape team so often scores themselves.
In other words, they started from attacks that started deep and included some dazzling switches of direction and high skill and pace.
Jones was at the heart of that, but it would have been Smith who set Glasgow on this path, and he deserves credit with what he has achieved with a club that was struggling before his arrival.
The Stormers should be disappointed, for they had their chances to win the game, and enjoyed a marked territorial advantage in the second half.
But it was a day where flyhalf Manie Libbok wasn’t as accomplished and assured off the place kicking tee as he normally is.
He missed a conversion when he was rushed by the referee when the scores were drawn level at 17-all following Junior Pokomela’s 62nd minute try, and it was a kick he’d normally have slotted.
WARRIORS DANGEROUS OUT WIDE
So was the penalty he was presented with a few minutes later. Instead, it was with the teams locked together still at 17-all that Glasgow overturned the trend of most of the second half by camping themselves in the Stormers 22 for the last seven minutes of the game.
So effectively it was a case of the Stormers surrendering just one log point when they conceded that final try. They would have wanted to win.
The Warriors’ success wasn’t just about their dazzling switches of attack at the back, they also attacked the breakdowns with impressive ferocity, they defended well when under pressure, and their scrumming was influential on the end result for what they produced in the second half, even if one or two scrum penalties awarded against the Cape team were questionable.
The trend in the game was set when the Warriors scored an eighth minute try from Cancellieiri that was started inside their own half and against the run of play, with the the Pumas wing going in at the right corner.
The Stormers had been solid up to then, and although their first visit into the opposition 22 before the first Cancellieri try wasn’t rewarded, they did get it right after the try when Joseph Dweba barrelled off the side of a loose scrum to take the Stormers into the lead with Libbok’s conversion.
Imagine trying to stop @josephdweba2 from scoring here. #GLAvSTO #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/KASvoCOWjC
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 8, 2023
The Warriors at that point were playing 14 against 15 after the yellow carding of lock Lewis Bean for a reckless challenge on an airborne Clayton Blommetjies.
It will probably irk the Stormers that the second Warriors try, scored by Steyn off a long-range attack as impressive as the one that netted the first try, came when the home team was still down to 14.
The failure to convert though meant that when Blommetjies went over in the right corner off an attack where the Stormers’ passing through the tackle was impressive, it was the Stormers in the lead by the two points that Libbok had scored from the tee after Dweba’s try.
The bullet pass from Paul de Wet puts Clayton Blommetjies through. #GLAvSTO #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/j3WrSo3TzD
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 8, 2023
So the teams went to the break with the Stormers leading 12-10, a lead they deserved at the time. And had they increased that lead during a dominant third quarter, no one would have quibbled.
But the Warriors stood firm and were always dangerous every time they got the ball wide. Sure enough ground made by Steyn down the left flank eventually led to a dazzling finish from Jones that, with the George Horne conversion, put Glasgow into a 17-12 lead after 52 minutes.
It was 10 minutes later that Pokomela drove over for a try that really should have been converted by Libbok.
A questionable scrum penalty against the Stormers immediately after Libbok missed his penalty attempt that would have regained the lead also cost the visitors.
The winning Cancellieri try came when the ball was grubbered behind the Stormers defence and with few Stormers players at home it was the pacy Cancellieri that profited form a bounce that went his way.
That feeling when you score the winning try ?? the @Vodacom #URC Champions ??
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) January 8, 2023
Sebastian Cancelliere is the Puma Warrior ????#GLAvSTO | @GlasgowWarriors pic.twitter.com/Umi4I6paGt
The Stormers won’t quibble with the result, they were beaten by a team that plays the game very much their way and which has had several innovations added to it by coach Smith.
Scores
Glasgow Warriors 24 - Tries: Sebastian Cancellieri 2, Kyle Steyn and Huw Jones; Conversions: George Horne and Domingo Miotti.
DHL Stormers 17 - Tries: Joseph Dweba, Clayton Blommetjies and Junior Pokomela; Conversion: Manie Libbok