Beware Scotland in the Six Nations after Glasgow Warriors hammer Saracens

And although Saracens were able to secure more possession and territory in the second half, their attack lacked the precision necessary to convert pressure into points, with Segun Rotimi one of the few to cause Glasgow problems in defence. Glasgow, with dominance in the maul, breakdown and scrum, were able to soak it all up – even when they lost Kyle Rowe to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Segun – before landing the killer blow with the final play.

Saracens were not lacking effort or spirit – Maro Itoje led the charge, so too Ben Earl – but their attacking ambitions were not connected and their discipline was poor.

“We obviously started the game slowly,” said Mark McCall. “It was 7-3 after 24 minutes, but it didn’t feel that way. I felt that they were the team on the front foot, we were the team on the back foot. We had a hill to climb in the second half and I thought our effort and our fight in the second half was great. But at the minute we’re just not joining that effort and fight up.

“I think we had 70 per cent territory in the whole game and to come up with three points we’ve got 70 per cent territory is not good enough. We just couldn’t get the speed of ball, we couldn’t take the odd five metre line out opportunities that we got and they defended brilliantly.”

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0, Ollie Smith; 7-0, Horne con, 7-3 Farrell pen; 12-3 Steyn try, 14-3, Horne con; 19-3, Horne try, 21-3 Horne con; 26-3, Stephen try, 28-3, Lancaster con.

Glasgow Warriors: K Rowe; K Steyn, H Jones (S McDowall 65), S Tuipulotu, O Smith; D Lancaster, G Horne (B Afshar 72); P Schickerling (R Sutherland 46), G Hiddleston (S Stephen 59), Z Fagerson (S Talakai 59), A Craig (G Brown 46), S Cummings (M Williamson 59), M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey (E Ferrie 73).
Sin-bin: K Rowe.

Saracens: E Daly; M Malins (N Caluori 49), L Cinti (O Hartley 61), O Farrell, Rotimi Segun; F Burke, I van Zyl (C Bracken 53); E Mawi (R Carre 46), J George (Hadfield 68), M Street (M Riccioni 40), M Itoje, H Tizard, T Farland (T Willis 46), J M Gonzalez (A Onyeama-Christie 53), B Earl (Gonzalez 73).
Sin-bin: J M Gonzalez, N Caluori.

Referee: L. Ramos.