Franco Smith verdict as Glasgow Warriors find a new way to win and Johnny Matthews lands a treble

There is more than one way to skin a cat and Franco Smith believes Glasgow Warriors showed their versatility in the way they dispatched Zebre Parma at Scotstoun.

Fraser Brown scores Glasgow's eighth and final try against Zebre Parma at Scotstoun. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

While it would be churlish to complain about a performance in which the home side scored eight tries in a 50-8 win, Glasgow didn't play with the fluidity that has become their hallmark under Smith this season. “But that’s the beauty of it!” said the coach. “We can play in different ways. We treated a very difficult team on its merits. Yes, I agree we didn’t play in the style that everyone expects, and as coaches we were even a little bit frustrated. But we know from watching Zebre that they are always a big threat in the second part of games.”

The Warriors made sure that didn’t happen, scoring four second-half tries to go with the quartet they notched before the interval. Johnny Matthews, the Glasgow hooker, scored a first-half hat-trick of lineout maul tries and JP du Preez also touched down in the first period. Stafford McDowall, Josh McKay, Thomas Gordon and Fraser Brown scored after the break while George Horne landed four conversions and Duncan Weir one.

“We decided to play in a certain way, get the win and I think we proved in the last 20 minutes our willingness to play with the ball in hand,” added Smith. “We didn’t want to make errors. We wanted to squeeze the game until we secured the win and the five points, so to end up scoring 50 points was satisfying.

Warriors' Johnny Matthews was named player of the match after his first-half hat-trick against Zebre Parma. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

“We didn’t play a kicking game, we used the lineouts differently this week. You must also remember that we are a little bit disjointed because we have a lot of players out, we’ve travelled to South Africa [to play the Lions last weekend] and came back at the start of the week so we played this game with only two days of prep. We’re using the full squad and it’s in the midst of the Six Nations so it’s important to prove we can play in different ways. We’re definitely not changing our DNA, and we’re not going away from what we want to do, but we are proving to ourselves that we can play in a different way when required.”

The bonus-point win enhanced Smith’s side’s chances of a top-four finish in the United Rugby Championship which would guarantee them a home tie in the play-offs. They have three games left to play but there is a three-week gap until they are next in action, against Munster away on March 25. They then finish the regular season with home games against Scarlets and Connacht.

The coach paid tribute to Matthews, who has to compete for the No 2 jersey at Glasgow with Scotland hookers George Turner and Brown, and has scored eight career tries in three matches against Zebre. “I’m glad for him," said Smith. “He’s at the back of that maul and everyone in front of him is working really hard but he’s still got to finish it off. He’s competing with two internationals in that role and he’s proving he’s growing every week.”