Glasgow Warriors' 'elephant in the room' as Edinburgh drop out of play-off places in epic URC race

It was not the prettiest win of his Glasgow Warriors tenure, but head coach Franco Smith was glad to watch his players get over “the elephant in the room” of losing so heavily to Leinster last week and take down Zebre on United Rugby Championship duty.

Warriors were taken to the cleaners 52-0 by Leinster in the Champions Cup quarter-finals and they arrived in Parma on Saturday night still bruised by their duffing up in Dublin. That showed in the first half, with Glasgow not troubling the scoreboard and going in 6-0 behind at the interval before the defending URC champions rediscovered their mojo and eked out a 14-6 win.

Josh McKay and Stafford McDowall landed the tries, while Tom Jordan kicked two conversion. The win guarantees Glasgow a top-four berth and keeps them in second place in the table, three points clear of Bulls with three matches to play before the play-offs.

Franco Smith was pleased to see the response from his Glasgow Warriors team. | SNS Group

“It [the Leinster match] was the elephant in the room,” said Smith afterwards. “I think we carried a bit of baggage into this game. To get the win, a hard-fought win - could we have scored more points? I definitely think so. It’s a hard place now to come and win. Nobody wants to lose against an Italian team, but we’ll take the four points.

“I’m proud of the character of the team. We stuck to our guns. I know there were a few boys who haven’t played for a while, some new entries from injury, and we had to bounce back from a tough week from a mental perspective last week. We’re proud of what we did.”

Zebre played well and could have inflicted more damage in the first half had they not dropped the ball not once but twice when on Warriors’ tryline. They welcome Edinburgh to Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi on Saturday and will give Sean Everitt’s men a tough test, especially when you consider they won at Hive Stadium earlier in the season.

Edinburgh out of URC play-off places

Edinburgh dropped out of the top eight and play-off places as their rivals took advantage of the capital club losing 18-17 on Friday night against Sharks. They are now in 11th spot, although only three points separates them and Cardiff Blues in fifth place.

The DHL Stormers were the big winners on Saturday, defeating Connacht 34-29 to move up into eighth. Benetton also gave their play-off hopes a massive boost by defeating Lions 42-31 in South Africa and they sit sixth, a place ahead of Munster, who were narrowly beaten 16-13 by Bulls at home.

Scarlets, Ulster and Edinburgh all have 38 points, one behind the Stormers in what will be an enthralling race to the finish line. Scarlets moved into contention by winning 31-23 away at Dragons, who continue to prop up the table.

Inspired by Dan Sheehan, Leinster continue to dominate in the URC. | Getty Images

Leaders Leinster continued their excellent form as Dan Sheehan scored a second-half hat-trick of tries in their 41-17 win over Ulster at the Aviva Stadium.

A much-changed Leinster forced a late penalty try to lead 19-10 at half-time after Tommy O’Brien and Thomas Clarkson had both crossed before Cormac Izuchukwu responded in impressive fashion for Ulster. Ulster number eight Dave McCann was yellow carded for that penalty try, and the table toppers, who also had Diarmuid Mangan sin-binned, tagged on four more scores.

Garry Ringrose went over early in the second half before replacement Sheehan put the hosts well over the horizon, with Matthew Dalton squeezing in a consolation effort for Ulster.