Glasgow Warriors start Champions Cup campaign with bonus point win after 11 try Sale Sharks shoot-out

Glasgow Warriors kicked off their latest Champions Cup campaign with a bonus point win in Salford as they beat Sale Sharks 47-27.

It was a contest where Franco Smith’s team had to come from 12-0 behind after ten minutes and then initially struggled to end the fight from a resilient home side before eventually putting the game to bed. Once again it was the maul that proved the ultimate deciding factor and resulted in three of Glasgow’s seven tries.

Sharks raced into an early lead with scores from flanker Ben Curry, off the back of a neat line-out trick play, and Scotland winger Arron Reed. However, Glasgow arrived in the game on 15 minutes where the driving maul was illegally brought down by Gus Warr resulting in a penalty try and sin binning for the scrum-half.

Scotland winger scores twice for Sale in impressive showing but Warriors are too strong and secure bonus point win

The home side were then reduced to 13 men when Tom Roebuck brought Kyle Steyn down with a football style sliding tackle as the winger chased a kick. Sale managed to survive the first two Glasgow attacks from there but Warriors relentlessly exploited the space and eventually Jamie Dobie’s line break and dummy pass saw him put Steyn through and the visitors in front.

Frustratingly, despite still having the two player advantage, Glasgow allowed the hosts to get back in front as a scrum penalty gave Ford the chance to kick three points over just as Warr returned to the pitch. The visitors did manage to add a third try on the half hour though when they went wide again and Steyn shipped it to Dobie who finished brilliantly in the corner.

The maul continued to be a huge weapon for Glasgow but Sale managed to deny it on the stroke of half time, holding up over the line. The half ended with Ford taking a shot at goal from a penalty inside his own half but the experienced England man’s kick drifted wide.

There was a strange moment from Warr early in the second half as the Scotland international knocked on at the back of a ruck, inexplicably rolling the ball forward. The subsequent attacking phase from Glasgow then ended with a neat switch and inside pass from Horne to Steyn before Zander Fagerson followed with a big carry and Alex Craig finished off from close range.

Glasgow’s newest Tuipulotu introduces himself with solid performance and a try from the bench

The maul might have been Warriors’ biggest threat but Sharks were dominating the scrum and won several penalties and caused trouble with a maul of their own which resulted in another penalty when it was illegally brought down. Glasgow were lucky to escape without a yellow card and managed to effectively disrupt the subsequent attack but the hosts did get their third try as Rekeiti Ma'asi-White crossed after a move that was started from an electric burst by Reed who carved open Warriors with his pace.

Glasgow managed to reopen the two score advantage on the back of another rolling maul. It’s one that was won by the whole forward pack but started with a bulls-eye throw from replacement hooker Ottavio Tuipulotu on debut and finished by Rory Darge.

It was end-to-end stuff between the 60th and 70th minutes as Sale got straight back into contention with another sweeping move started by a Ford pass that Joe Carpenter took hard and flat before offloading to Reed for his second and Sale’s fourth. However, Glasgow managed to end the fight from the Sharks with their sixth try which came from Sione Tuipulotu’s line break and was finished off by Ollie Smith with his first touch of the ball after coming off the bench.

Glasgow needed one more try to get the bonus point under the new system and secured it when the younger Tuipulotu finished at the back of yet another unstoppable driving maul. It means Franco Smith’s side left with the maximum five points and they will return to this competition in December when French outfit Pau visit Scotstoun.

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