Glasgow Warriors reaction: More to come, Johnny Matthews' mouthguard, 'ridiculous' Cam Henderson yellow card

Glasgow Warriors celebrate Henco Venter's second half try in the win over Leicester Tigers. | SNS Group

Franco Smith believes there is a lot more to come from his Glasgow Warriors side after they booked their place in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals with a comprehensive victory over Leicester Tigers in the round of 16.

Smith’s side scored six tries to win 43-19 at Scotstoun and will now meet Leinster in Dublin in the last eight on Friday night.

“I'm obviously delighted with the result and some good rugby played but we did leave some points out there and I think we weren't as clinical as we may have been in the first half against the Lions a couple of weeks ago,” said Smith, referring to their 42-0 win the previous week. “So yeah, that is what excites me. I think we can still improve on our current performance.”

Glasgow Warriors celebrate Henco Venter's second half try in the win over Leicester Tigers. | SNS Group

First-half tries from Henco Venter and Sione Vailanu put Glasgow in the driving seat after Olly Cracknell had given Leicester an early lead. The Warriors led 17-5 at the break but pulled away at the start of the second half with three tries in the opening 11 minutes from Vailanu again, Adam Hastings and George Horne to lead 38-5. Hastings converted the first five tries and added a penalty and Venter rounded off the scoring with his second try late on. Leicester's other points came from tries from Solomone Kata and Hanro Liebenberg, both converted by Handre Pollard, long after the match had ceased to be a contest.

“I think we came out and applied some good pressure from the restart,” added Smith. “I think our set-piece functioned although I think they stopped our set-piece also well. But we made full use of some of the opportunities which obviously extended the points difference on the scoreboard, which obviously created a bit of pressure onto them. So yeah, I think a lot of the hard work was done in the first half, where we kept on staying in the 22 and just breaking it down.”

The one downside for Glasgow was the loss of Johnny Matthews after 24 minutes. The hooker had to go off for a head injury assessment after a high-looking tackle by Emeka Ilione. The Leicester flanker’s shoulder made contact with Matthews’ head but referee Craig Evans decided there had been no foul play after a consultation with the TMO.

Smith revealed that Matthews was not wearing an instrumented mouthguard which indicates when a player has been involved in a significant collision. Smith said that the thicker mouthguards with in-built technology made the player “feel ill”.

“It is difficult because of the gum shields that they wear,” said Smith. “He does not wear one so therefore, he does not qualify for the HIA process.

Glasgow Warriors' Johnny Matthews after being replaced during the Investec Champions Cup match with Leicester Tigers. | SNS Group

“So it is unfortunate. One specific make and type and that, you know, you've got to adapt to that. Hopefully he'll be cleared [to play against Leinster on Friday].”

As to the actual incident, Smith was diplomatic.

“It's a pity that we lose a player and it's not even worth the penalty. So that's all I'm going to say about that,” he said.

Michael Cheika, the Leicester Tigers head coach, questioned some of the refereeing decisions, most notably the “ridiculous” yellow card shown to his Scotland international Cam Henderson at the end of the first half for handling in the ruck.

“They [the officials] couldn't even tell you what it was for,” said Cheika. “Henderson couldn't even tell me what it was for. It was ridiculous.”

He said “the knock-on effect” was that Leicester conceded a try at the start of the second half when Cracknell dropped the ball from the kick off, allowing Vailanu to score his second from the subsequent scrum.

“The knock-on effects are that Henderson loses his spot in the kick-off group. We have to change positions with others. That creates doubt in the catch because the player that we brought over creates doubt in the catch.

“Sure, yeah, we've got to catch it, I get it. But then the knock-on effect is we have to play a flanker in the second row. We have to then put the centre at the flanker, which takes the player out of the defensive line.”

Leicester also had scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on in the first half.