Glasgow 31 - 14 Treviso: Warriors win but new boy sees red

Glasgow Warriors' Rory Hughes makes it 31-7 against Benetton Treviso at Scotstoun with another try. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS/SRU

Stuart Hogg could have had two tries inside the opening five minutes although both were wiped off, the first because the full-back dived too early, hit the ground before the try line and lost control of the ball.

It mattered little as Glasgow had the bonus point bagged before the halfway stage and went on to claim a total of five over the course of the 80 minutes, even if the last one arrived on 46 minutes. The game ended with a controversial red card for debutant Langilangi Haupeakui, who had already seen yellow.

Treviso were awful. Soft in the contact, clueless with the ball, shapeless without it, dragging the league slowly into the mire. Their first-half penalty try owed everything to two Glasgow mistakes, although they saved their best rugby for the final quarter with this game long gone.

Glasgow, coming off the back of their Champions Cup mauling on an emotional day in Limerick, made hay in perfect conditions at Scotstoun.

Even fielding their second string front row Glasgow still edged the set scrum, earning several straight-arm penalties after the break. Treviso set up their first rolling maul and promptly engaged reverse gear.

Even when Treviso earned themselves a penalty try,  Russell’s kick bounced into Serge Budd’s hands and the Italian flanker set off the line when Dunbar was convicted of an early tackle on the  supporting player, a short-handed Glasgow still bossed the play.

Rory Hughes snapped up one of the easier tries he will score right between the sticks after a simple cut with Henry Pyrgos.

It was his first at Scotstoun, which explained the exuberant celebrations and Hughes is undoubtedly much improved, growing into the role, looking for the offload rather than just running over the opposition and he was rewarded with a second score after the break and the man of the match award.

Jonny Gray had already opened the scoring in the eighth minute after rumbling over from short range after some simple softening up from the Glasgow pack. That was followed by a training ground move from Mark Bennett, who looked worthy of his starting place after playing second fiddle to Sam Johnson last weekend. Tommy Seymour came off his wing to take the ball off Russell in the ten channel and Bennett was on the winger’s shoulder to carry the ball all the way to the right hand corner, beating two defenders on his way.

Dunbar then came out the sin bin and scored the fourth after what looked like an obvious knock-on from number eight Ryan Wilson to grab the bonus point at the death of the first half. The second half was six minutes old when Hughes added his second and Glasgow’s fifth and final try.

Townsend went to the bench early, with lock Brian Alainu’uese, pictured, and Haupeakui making their bow before the hour mark and it was to prove eventful for the latter. Haupeakui was shown a yellow card 11 minutes after entering the fray for a tackle that was judged to be illegal.

Peter Horne made a welcome return to the action after six weeks out with a broken hand and then left the field just before the end after an accidental blow to the head from Haupeakui who was now back on the field… but not for long.

With a minute left on the clock the USA Eagle got into some needless shoving after a jack hammer of a tackle and was shown red by the referee because the flanker had failed to wrap his arms. We’ll put that one down to enthusiasm.