Glasgow Warriors chastened by Northampton in Champions Cup as gulf bigger than scoreline suggests

Glasgow's Tom Jordan in action during the defeat to Northampton at Scotstoun. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Glasgow Warriors suffered a dose of first night nerves as they lost at home to Northampton Saints in the opening match of the 2023-24 Investec Champions Cup.

The English visitors deserved their victory which was more convincing than the 28-19 scoreline suggests. Two late tries from Glasgow added some gloss but, in truth, the game had already gone by that point.

Northampton had been clinical and very physical. They recovered from conceding an early try to Sebastian Cancelliere to dominate the first half and went into the break 22-5 ahead. It left Glasgow with far too much to do and scores in the final 12 minutes from Ollie Smith and a penalty try were too little too late on a bruising evening for Franco Smith’s side.

The Warriors face a tough task in France next week against Bayonne and further tests await in January against familiar foes Exeter Chiefs and Toulon but with four teams qualifying from each six-team group they are still very much in the mix to make it to the last 16 from Pool 3.

Glasgow began the match playing into the wind and rain but took the lead with an intercept try from Cancelliere after only four minutes. The winger looked razor sharp as he pinched the ball from Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell and sprinted home from 40 metres out. Unfortunately for the home side, it was all downhill after that in the first half.

Northampton were probing down the blindside and Johnny Matthews did well to stop Tommy Freeman in his tracks. Saints weren’t to be denied, however, and a couple of minutes later Freeman broke a tackle and fed Courtney Lawes to score. Fin Smith’s conversion made it 7-5 to the visitors and the stand-off added a penalty shortly afterwards to extend Northampton’s lead.

Worse was to follow, with Freeman adding two more tries inside 10 minutes. Fin Smith delayed the pass expertly to play in the centre for his first and then Mitchell provided the assist for Freeman’s second.

In between, Glasgow lost Scott Cummings to the sin-bin after he was adjudged to have infringed against Alex Waller at the lineout. The Saints prop landed awkwardly and had to be replaced by debutant Tarek Haffar but the yellow card seemed harsh.

Glasgow needed a way back in and Cancelliere almost provided it with a carbon copy of his early intercept try but Mitchell tackled the winger short of the line.

The game was slipping away from the Warriors and Franco Smith looked to his bench, bringing on young scrum-half Ben Afshar at half-time and Nathan McBeth, George Turner and Sione Vailanu three minutes into the second half. The introduction of the latter saw Cummings move into the second row after he started the game at flanker but the momentum remained with Northampton.

Two more penalties from the prolific Fin Smith extended their lead to 28-5 and Glasgow’s cause wasn’t being helped by some baffling refereeing decisions by French official Luc Ramos, most notably around scrum penalties.

A late burst by Glasgow roused the home crowd and it was sparked by a superb solo try by Ollie Smith. The winger surged down the left then collected his own chip before barging his way over. Ross Thompson, on for Huw Jones, landed the conversion from out on the touchline. Cancelliere and McKay then combined in another lung-busting move but this one was thwarted and ended in a flare-up which saw Ollie Smith crash through the advertising boards.

Time was running out but Glasgow had one more roll of the dice and were awarded a penalty try after working a good lineout move. Haffar was yellow-carded as the Warriors moved to win nine points of their opponents. They tried gamely for a fourth try which would have given them two bonus points but it wasn't to be.