Glasgow Warriors reaction: Half-time rocket, who added value, debut to remember

Franco Smith praised the contribution of his substitutes and admitted he had to do some stern talking at half-time as his Glasgow Warriors side came from behind to beat Benetton 31-10 in the United Rugby Championship.

The Warriors trailed 10-7 at the interval but scored four second-half tries to secure a bonus-point win and increase their lead at the top of the table to nine points. The second-placed Stormers host Edinburgh in Cape Town on Saturday.

It may not have been a vintage Glasgow performance but, for Smith, it was all about the victory.

Glasgow Warriors players celebrate their win over Benetton at Scotstoun. | SNS Group

“In the end, that’s what it's about, isn't it?” said the Warriors coach who had made eight changes to the side that had beaten Leinster the previous week. “You can't always play with the freedom that we have. There's a lot of ingredients that went into today. Obviously, Johnny Matthews hasn't played for three months since the Edinburgh game.

“We had Sione [Tuipulotu] and Huw [Jones] coming back in. We had Max Williamson calling the lineouts for the first time and a couple of other moving parts.

“Adam [Hastings] hasn't started for us for a bit, Ben [Afshar] hasn't started for a bit. The objective of the game was always to win it, and I'm really grateful for that. There's a lot of other ingredients that needed to be added to make sure we are well prepared going into the next week, and obviously South Africa is ahead of us.”

Bench men added value

Smith was keen to give game-time to as many as his squad as possible for the tests that lie ahead. Glasgow host the Bulls in the last 16 of the Champions Cup next Saturday and if they win that they will have a home quarter-final the following week. They will then return to URC duties with a double-header in South Africa next month against the Lions and Stormers.

The coach acknowledged that he needed to remind his players that time was running out as they came in at the break trailing to the Italian visitors. Asked if he had to give them a rocket, Smith smiled and said: “The rocket is for them to realise there's only 40 minutes left if we don't start upping our game a little more. It wasn't necessary for me at all to always challenge the boys with what needed to be done. We always knew that players coming off the bench will come and lift the team and add value.”

Two of the replacements, Seb Stephen and Sam Talakia, notched late tries to help push Glasgow to victory following earlier scores from Johnny Matthews, debutant Fergus Watson and Max Williamson. There were also significant contributions from the bench from Jack Oliver, Alex Samuel and Alex Craig.

Smith was delighted for Watson after being frustrated by his team’s inability to get the ball to the wings during the first half.

“That's the thing,” he said. “We didn't get the ball as wide as we wanted in the first half. We only saw him really getting his hands on it in the second part of the game. That's the reason it was addressed at half-time. I thought that was the biggest change in the second part of the game. Again, he did really, really well.”