Glasgow Warriors ‘over the moon’ with URC title triumph as new challenge set by Franco Smith
Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith looks on.
Glasgow Warriors captain Kyle Steyn was full of pride after his side claimed the United Rugby Championship title thanks to a 21-16 win over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
In an incredible come-from-behind away victory, converted tries from Scott Cummings, George Turner and Huw Jones saw Glasgow achieve a memorable tournament success.
The Warriors managed to limit the Bulls to just one try, from flanker Marco van Staden, and the rest of the South Africans’ 11 points came via the boot of fly-half Johan Goosen.
Over the moon
“I am so proud of the guys. Credit to the Bulls, they came out firing in front of their fans and put us under pressure,” wing Steyn told Premier Sports after the incredible win.
“I am so proud of the belief of my guys, no matter what has been thrown at us in the last three weeks. No matter what has been thrown at us, they have stuck at it.
“The defensive shift at the end there, some of the hits up front… I’m over the moon.
“To go into half-time 13-7 down, we’d have taken that after the first half we had. That settled us.
“We started the second half really well. We took the intensity up a notch and I’m just chuffed to bits.”
Much like Munster’s run on the road last season, Glasgow did things in a similar hard way as they edged the Irish province in Limerick before winning at Loftus for URC glory.
After the win head coach Franco Smith also reflected on an incredible fightback from his team as they came back from 13-0 down in the first half and “stuck to the script”.
“The boys have played well, bought in,” he said.
“The half-time chat was easy. We knew we had a good plan for the second half. We let them in through our own errors, like last week. They stuck to the script.
“There’s a lot to be said about the hard edge of the European teams and we brought it tonight, especially in the last 10-15 minutes.
“We defended our line well and applied a lot of pressure to the maul. The boys fronted up to a very strong South African team with 50,000 people behind them. They can be very proud.
“This team shouldn’t be done after tonight. We’ve got the building blocks to go further still.”
Player of the match Matt Fagerson, who was part of a superb back-row effort, added: “Words cannot describe how we’re feeling right now.
“It’s something we’ve been working towards all season and to do it in a place as historic as this in front of all these fans is, I can’t put it into words.
“I think in the last three or four games, we’ve really taken a liking to knock-out rugby in a sense of we’re not overplaying the ball and when you’ve got a kicker like George Horne, it makes things so much easier.
“We went the hard way but we wouldn’t change it for the world.”
