Aironi 16-17 Glasgow: Basic errors from both teams but Glasgow dug in

FULL marks for determination. Zero for application. Glasgow scrapped, battled and fought their way to their first away win of the season, but at times it looked as though they had just as hard a battle overcoming their own inadequacies as anything that Aironi, the bottom club in the Magners League, could throw at them.

Sean Lineen, the head coach, was a hugely relieved man afterwards, but never even tried to pretend that this was anything other than his side coming through by the skin of their teeth against a team they should expect to beat comfortably. In the end, a 10 minute spell on either side of half time when they got the basics right, and a huge amount of battling spirit, was enough. Just.

"Both teams could have won by a lot, it was that kind of game," he said. "It was not a case of winning ugly; it was a case of winning grotesquely. But from a positive point of view, it was our first away win. Any win away from home will do. Aironi had a good win last week, so they had some momentum. We have to build that. A little bit of momentum can go a long way."

Luckily for Glasgow, when it came to blundering, it was hard to decide which side was worse. True, Glasgow were more incompetent when it came to passing to thin air, dropping the ball and messing up lineouts, but Aironi's mistakes hurt them more. They had three clear-cut scoring chances in the first half but they all went begging thanks to their inability to carry out the most basic of rugby skills in perfect conditions, and you wonder if Glasgow could have come back from that.

Had the teams been playing in the mud and mire of a bitterly cold Firhill night, then the display of first half blundermania would have been hard not to excuse. In the warmth of a sunny Italian spring day, both coaches must have wondered why they bothered when so many players were so determined to lay on a demonstration of the comic potential of the sport.

At least Glasgow managed to get more right when it really mattered and took a narrow lead into the break, Ruaridh Jackson making decent contact with one of the three penalties he was handed, while with the last move of the half, the Scots at last managed a handling move that they did not mess up, with Federico Aramburu, the centre, slipping the ball to Peter Murchie to race in for the game's opening try.

Jackson converted to give them a bit of breathing space and they should have made the game comfortable early in the second half when prop Ryan Grant burrowed his way over the line.

Only sitting on a 11-point lead would have been too easy for Glasgow, though. They quickly allowed Aironi back into the game, allowing James Marshall, the scrum-half, to wriggle through to score his team's opening try, which he converted himself and then added a penalty to bring the teams within a point of each other again.

Still a quarter of the match to go, and victory to whichever side could guts it out in the Italian sun.

"Both teams were not playing well, did not seem to be able to keep the ball," admitted Lineen. "It is something we have to look at, our skill set. Our spirit was fantastic; to win away from home for the first time with ten guys in the first year of playing for us was great and shows the determination, the spirit, the drive in the squad."

Scorers: Aironi: Try: Marshall. Con: Marshall. Pens: Tebaldi 2, Marshall. Glasgow: Tries: Murchie, Grant. Cons: Jackson 2. Pen: Jackson.

Aironi: G Rubini; G Toniolatti, M Pratichetti (P Pavan, 71), G Pizarro, D Demas; J Marshall, T Tebaldi (P Canavosio, 50); A De Marchi (S Perugini, 50), R Santamaria (F Ongaro, 38-41, 57), F Staibano (S Redolfini, 68), J Furno (Q Geldenhuys, 45), M Bortolami (c), J Sole (J Erasmus, 57), N Cattina, N Williams.

Glasgow: P Murchie; DTH van der Merwe, F Aramburu, G Morrison (c), A Dunbar (H O'Hare, 42); R Jackson (D Weir, 60), H Pyrgos (C Gregor, 41); R Grant (J Welsh, 66), P MacArthur (D Hall, 41), M Low (K Tkachuk, 66), A Muldowney, T Ryder (J Eddie, 10-18, 63), R Harley, R Vernon, R Wilson (J Beattie, 41).

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).