Wolfhounds 64 – 21 Glasgow Warriors

Both teams started at a strong but even level on defence and attack, to the point that the scoreboard was on nil until past the ten minutes mark. It was Glasgow Warriors who got the first try of the morning and it was delivered by the hand of Briar McNamara, who with a combination of power and speed, broke through the Irish defence and ran away over the opposition’s try-line. McNamara also got the two extra points of the conversion.

Within minutes the retaliation from Wolfhounds landed who took advantage of a scrum on their favour, to quickly open up the play wide and send Leah Tarpey into the Warriors’ try zone. Conversion was successful by Dannah O’Brien.

By the eighteenth minute, the score was looking 7-7, which kept both team at risk. The visitors recognised this issue rapidly and reacted by extending their lead. Glasgow who kept at it when it came to standing steady on their defence line and turning over as many plays as possible, eventually were forced to leave a gap on the inside, a space that was exploited by Eve Higgins to give Wolfhounds their second try of the morning. Conversion was successful by O’Brien.

Warriors, persisted taking every penalty committed by the Irish to kick away and get some distance on their territory. Many try attempts from the visitors saved by the likes of Sky Phimister and Roma Fraser on the wings, who kept displaying their explosive foot work and handling skills to move the play away from the Warriors 22m.

After two more tries from Aoife Wafer and Linda Djougang plus one more conversion from O’Brien, the opposition went into the half time break with a 19-point margin. Wolfhounds 26 – 7 Glasgow Warriors.

Back from the break, it was once more a repetition of the opening minutes, in which both sides held the opposition’s attacks. The visitors lost Stacey Flood on the starting minutes of this second half due to an injury and was replaced by Elli O’Sullivan Sexton. This change seemed to kick the Irish side awake and they were pressuring into the home side’s territory.

The next try occurred by minute forty two, after a scrum in favour of Wolfhounds. They were able to push the maul past the goal line and land the ball by hand of Brittany Hoggans, O’Brien then secured the extra two points.

Glasgow then also suffered the loss of a player when Carla McDonald was subbed out for a knee injury. Carla had been a pillar on the match previously to the incident, so the Irish side capitalised on the first chance they had. A small handling mistake caused a loose ball on the Warriors’ side and Eve Higgins stole it to run under the posts for her second try of the day. O’Brien added the conversion.

Not long after this the home side showed that they were not ready to go down without a fight. A successful scrum for Glasgow allowed Ceitidh Ainsworth to get the ball before anyone else was able to react and run past between the Wolfhound’s scrum half and fly half, leaving them behind as she landed the ball in the in-goal area. Ainsworth also added the conversion points.

As the clock marked the last twenty minutes, the visitors then proceeded to change their back three players, looking for these fresh players to bring more speed into the game. Warriors also had a few changes but, on their front row, looking for more power for their plays.

Erin King then was able to break away after a Wolfhounds scrum, retaliating for Glasgow’s last try, King used the same approach when receiving the pass from their number 9 and speeding away leaving no time to react for anyone. O’Brien included the two conversion points.

Glasgow’s third try of the match happened in the last fifteen minutes, showing how Warriors were fighting till the end. Poppy Mellanby broke through the Wolfhound’s line and offloaded the to Emily Coubrough who dived into the Irish try zone. Coubrough also added the conversion.

The visitors managed three more tries by Eve Higgins, Katie Corrigan and Katie Whelan plus one conversion, giving the opposition a big enough margin to secure the match. Full time at Scotstoun was Wolfhound 64 – 21 Glasgow Warriors.

Lindsey Smith, Glasgow Warriors’ head coach shared her post match thoughts 

“Obviously the scoreline does not flatter us but, positives compared to the last time we played Wolfhounds were we scored more tries, we defended better at times but there is definitely work to be done in that area. 

I think we have improved but there is still work that we need to do going into our game next weekend against Clovers.

Some individuals that performed really well Poppy Mellanby, came in and made a difference to the game. Specially for that third try where she showed her foot work skills to get us out of the 22m deep into the other half with the support of Aicha Sutcliffe and Emily Coubrough going the distance. 

We showed glimpses of what we can do in attack but we need to be better than we were today to get the results desired”