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NZ flyer off the mark as Glasgow earn big win over Ospreys

By PA
(Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

Josh McKay scored his first Glasgow try as Warriors earned a bonus point against the Ospreys with a dominant second-half display.

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Sione Tuipulotu grabbed two tries and Cole Forbes also crossed as Warriors secured a 38-19 victory over their visitors at Scotstoun.

Dan Evans got the Ospreys’ only try late on, but Warriors co-captain Fraser Brown immediately marked his return from injury by going over.

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The Ospreys started well and twice went ahead during an early exchange of penalties, but they were caught out in the 21st minute after Sam Johnson initially broke the line.

The Welsh side stopped Zander Fagerson and Jamie Bhatti almost on the line, but Glasgow worked the ball out for Forbes to go through Mat Protheroe’s tackle and over the line.

Tuipulotu soon got his first try of the evening after a Warriors scrum inside their own half. The Australia-born Scotland international collected the ball after some short, sharp passes and burst through two challenges before sprinting for home.

Four Gareth Anscombe penalties kept Glasgow’s half-time lead to five points, but the home side pinned the Ospreys back after the interval before McKay stepped inside his man and burst through to score in the 47th minute.

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Warriors brought on Tonga international Walter Fifita for his debut and remained on top.

The bonus point was sealed just after the hour mark when Tuipulotu wriggled out of an Anscombe tackle and was soon clear and away from the chasing Ospreys.

The Ospreys finally made some attacking inroads in the second half. Matthew Aubrey charged down Ross Thompson’s kick, but Kyle Steyn caught him with a last-ditch tackle.

The visitors did get their score in the 70th minute when Evans went over after good footwork from Anscombe.

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But Brown made his mark two minutes later in his first appearance since suffering a knee injury in October. The hooker took the ball from the back of a maul on the right flank and forced himself over.

Duncan Weir followed up Thompson’s perfect conversion record with an excellent kick to finish off the scoring.

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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