Glasgow battle past Benetton in Treviso

URC REPORT: Glasgow Warriors were made to battle for their 19-9 win over Benetton at Stadio Monigo in the United Rugby Championship.

Hooker Johnny Matthews went over for his 11th try of the season and the Warriors also breached the Benetton defence through Stafford McDowell and Tom Jordan, with Ross Thompson and Duncan Weir adding conversions.

Fullback Jacob Umaga kicked three penalties for Benetton.

Glasgow broke the deadlock with seven minutes on the clock as hooker Matthews collected a ball from the back of a short line-out and coasted unopposed over the line.

They went over for a second time five minutes before the break.

A neat kick over the top from scrumhalf Jamie Dobie opened up the Benetton defence and Facundo Cordero hacked the ball forward for McDowall to touch down and Thompson sent over the conversion for a 12-0 lead.

Benetton finally got on the scoreboard four minutes after the restart when fullback Umaga converted a straight-forward penalty.

Benetton took confidence from that and a spell of continued pressure was rewarded with another Umaga penalty as they penned Glasgow in their own 22.

Glasgow prop Lucio Sordoni was fortunate to be only yellow carded after catching Thomas Gallo up high with his forearm in the loose.

Benetton turned down two kickable penalties with Sordoni off the pitch in favour of kicking to the corner but failed to take advantage of the 14-man Warriors.

But shortly after Sordoni returned, Umaga elected for a shot at goal and kicked his third penalty off the afternoon to make it a three-point game with eight minutes remaining.

However, Glasgow immediately hit back to go over for the third time.

Again it was chipped kick forward from Dobie that was claimed by McDowell and he drew the defender before flipping wide for Jordan to cross for a simple try with Weir adding the simple conversion.

Man of the match: Warriors centre McDowall stood out in a game of limited openings and his break for the third try that drew the defender before offloading to Jordan put the game to bed.

The scorers:

For Benetton:
Pens: Umaga 3

For Glasgow:
Tries: Matthews, McDowall, Jordan
Cons: Thompson, Weir

Yellow card: Lucio Sordoni (Glasgow Warriors, 58′ – foul play)

Teams:

Benetton: 15 Jacob Umaga, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Marco Zanon, 11 Onisi Ratave, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Alessandro Garbisi, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Giovanni Pettinelli, 6 Alessandro Izekor, 5 Eli Snyman, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Siua Maile, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Federico Zani, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Riccardo Favretto, 20 Edoardo Iachizzi, 21 Henry Time-Stowers, 22 Andy Uren, 23 Giacomo Da Re.

Glasgow: 15 Josh McKay, 14 Sebastian Cancelliere, 13 Stafford McDowall (captain), 12 Tom Jordan, 11 Facundo Cordero, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Jamie Dobie, 8 Henco Venter, 7 Thomas Gordon, 6 Euan Ferrie, 5 Alex Samuel, 4 Max Williamson, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Nathan McBeth.
Replacements: 16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Oli Kebble, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Ally Miller, 21 Angus Fraser, 22 Ben Afshar, 23 Duncan Weir.

Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Filippo Russo (Italy) and Alex Frasson (Italy)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)