Scotland stars rip Zebre apart as champions Glasgow Warriors go top of the URC
Glasgow Warriors moved to the top of the United Rugby Championship after they thrashed Zebre Parma 33-3 at Scotstoun on Friday.
Franco Smith’s men dominated throughout with their Scotland players doing plenty of damage.
One-time capped hooker Johnny Matthews got the ball rolling by touching down before George Horne and Huw Jones grew in influence.
Horne, as ever, was lively from the base while Jones was clinical, touching down twice either side of the break to set Glasgow on their way to a third URC victory of the season.
Two more Scottish internationals, Jamie Dobie and Grant Stewart, also crossed the whitewash while Adam Hastings was successful with four conversions in the bonus-point success.
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After a lively start, in which they were unable to turn pressure into points, Zebre never looked like causing real problems for the home team, who have now beaten them in all 23 of their competitive encounters.
Glasgow opened their account with their first foray into the opposition 22. Zebre were penalised at the breakdown, Hastings sent the kick to touch and from the line-out maul Matthews crossed.
Hastings converted to open up a 7-0 lead – the first of four successful kicks out of five attempts by the fly-half.
The crowd had waited nearly quarter of an hour for the opening score, but the second came along just two minutes later.
An inspired passing move from midfield ended when Kyle Rowe was hauled down just short of the line, but Glasgow managed to recycle and Dobie touched down in the right corner.
Zebre opened their account near the half-hour mark through a penalty by stand-off Giacomo Da Re, but Glasgow soon scored their third try when Jones forced his way over for a 21-3 half-time lead.
After the interval, Jones exploited some slack defending to cross for the bonus-point score. Stewart, on at hooker for Matthews, then claimed the fifth from another line-out maul.
Scott Cummings and Horne also crossed in the second half, but both were chalked off for prior offences.
Zebre enjoyed a modest revival as the sting went out of the game in the last quarter, but were unable to add to their solitary penalty.
The teams
Glasgow: 15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Jamie Dobie, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Stafford McDowall (c), 11 Facundo Cordero, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 George Horne, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Euan Ferrie, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Gregor Brown, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Jamie Bhatti
Replacements: 16 Grant Stewart, 17 Nathan McBeth, 18 Patrick Schickerling, 19 Alex Samuel, 20 Max Williamson, 21 Henco Venter, 22 Ben Afshar, 23 Tom Jordan
Zebre: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Fetuli Paea, 12 Scott Gregory, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 8 Giovanni Licata (c), 7 Luca Andreani, 6 Giacomo Ferrari, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Leonard Krumov, 3 Matteo Nocera, 2 Giampietro Ribaldi, 1 Luca Rizzoli
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Samuele Taddei, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Matteo Canali, 20 Iacopo Bianchi, 21 Alessandro Fusco, 22 Damiano Mazza, 23 Ben Cambriani
Referee: Griffin Colby (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Mike Adamson (Scotland), Chelsea Gillespie (Scotland)
TMO: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)