Rory Darge's tackle count shows how tough a test it was for Glasgow Warriors - but they passed it

The cuts and bruises on Rory Darge’s face told their own story of a match in which Glasgow Warriors had to withstand an onslaught from South African visitors which bordered on the brutal.

Glasgow Warriors' Rory Darge on the attack against the Lions in the EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final. Picture: Steve Welsh/PA Wire

The Emirates Lions didn’t travel over 8,000 miles from Johannesburg not to make a go of it and they left a lasting impression in more ways than one. Glasgow toughed it out, winning 31-21 to advance to the semi-finals of the EPCR Challenge Cup where they will face the Scarlets in Llanelli on the final weekend of the month.

Darge, in his fifth game back from a serious ankle injury which kept him out for five months, was immense, a thorn in the side of opponents. He made 29 tackles, the highest by any player on the Scotstoun pitch and almost twice as many as any of his opponents. “It was a pretty hard night all round,” said the flanker. “Credit to them, they made it hard for us. They are physical, confrontational, big lads as well - especially that big tighthead [Asenathi Ntlabakanye, who weighs in at over 20 stone] and [Willem] Alberts [a mere stripling at 18st 12lb]. I thought in the pack, and to be fair the backs as well, we dealt with a lot of their threats, especially in the first half.”

This was no try-fest like the week before when the Warriors put 11 past the Dragons in the round of 16. They scored four against the Lions, impressive enough, but it felt closer than it perhaps should have done in the second half. Glasgow had gone in at the turn 14-0 up thanks to two well worked tries from lineouts. Last week, the driving maul had provided five of the 11 scores. This time they varied things, catching out the Lions with a clever dummy move for Jack Dempsey’s opener and then spreading the ball wide for auxiliary winger Jamie Dobie to nab the second. Sione Tuipulotu had an important hand in both, underlining again his selfless ability to play in others.

A try by the Lions' lively scrum-half Sanele Nohamba caught Glasgow out at the start of the second half. Zander Fagerson restored the home side’s two-try cushion five minutes later but Francke Horn narrowed the gap again with 16 minutes remaining. George Horne, exemplary off the tee, kicked a penalty to nudge the Warriors further ahead and when Tom Jordan scored their fourth try on 73 minutes that seemed to be that. But the Lions never stopped and Morne Brandon’s try made the final four minutes rather uncomfortable for the hosts.

After the game, Franco Smith wore the satisfied look of a man who had just watched his team pass a particularly physical examination. As a former Springbok, he was schooled in the toughest of environments and you suspect he was more impressed with the way Glasgow stood up to the challenge posed by the Lions than with the points and tries records his team racked up the week before. “It wouldn’t surprise me that the 263 tackles we made [against the Lions] was also a record,” said the Warriors coach. “Attack will get you the lead in finals, but defence will win it for you, so both of those components are really important.”

Scorers: Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Dempsey, Dobie, Z Fagerson, Jordan. Cons: G Horne 4. Pens: G Horne.

Emirates Lions: Tries: Nohamba, F Horn, Brandon. Cons: Nohamba, Lombard 2.

Sione Tiupulotu had a hand in Glasgow Warriors' first two tries against the Emirates Lions. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Glasgow Warriors: O Smith; K Steyn, H Jones, S Tuipulotu (A Price 75), J Dobie; D Miotti (T Jordan 38-40; 61), G Horne; J Bhatti (N McBeth 61), G Turner (J Matthews 61), Z Fagerson (S Berghan 61), S Cummings (JP du Preez 61), R Gray (L Bean 61), M Fagerson, R Darge (T Gordon 75), J Dempsey.

Emirates Lions: Q Horn; R Maxwane (A Coetzee 8), M Rass (R Jonker 75), M Louw, E van der Merwe; G Lombard, S Nohamba (M van den Berg 60); JP Smith (R Rijnsburger 50), 2. PJ Botha (M Brandon 67), A Ntlabakanye (R Dreyer 67), W Alberts, R Schoeman, J Kriel (T Gordon 67), R Venter (R Delport 16), F Horn.

Referee: Matthew Carley (England).

Attendance: 4,249.