Glasgow Warriors 27 Connacht 17

A brace of tries from DTH Van der Merwe helped Glasgow Warriors to a hard-fought victory over Connacht.

The hosts led from start to finish but their gallant Irish opponents played their part in an entertaining contest at Scotstoun.
Scott Wight gave Glasgow an early lead with a sweetly struck penalty goal and then, just over a quarter of an hour later, Sean Lamont marked his return to action with a great individual score, demonstrating great footwork to cross for the game's opening try.
Ten minutes later the Warriors went further in front courtesy of a superb individual score from Peter Murchie, who evaded the grasp of several would be defenders to cross the line.
It was all one way traffic at this stage, but Connacht gave themselves a lifeline just short of half-time when Matthew McCrea pounced as the ball bobbled around the in-goal area. Matthew Jarvis added the conversion and hit a penalty on the stroke of half-time to further reduce the deficit.
It was 15-10 as the game restarted for the second half, but Connacht soon found themselves with a mountain to climb, with Van der Merwe scooping up the loose ball close to the Connacht line before speeding over for an opportunistic score.
Connacht hit back almost instantly, however, with Nathan White's try and Jarvis's conversion making it 22-17.
Almost 30 minutes later and the game remained finely poised, but Glasgow were again able to turn to Van der Merwe, who crossed for another eye-catching score to secure the bonus point for the side and put ten points between the teams.
Connacht rallied in the closing stages, but the Glasgow defence held firm to secure a welcome home win.