Glasgow beat Saracens to set up Bulls last-16 tie

Champions Cup

Glasgow Warriors 28 (21)

Cons: Horne 3, Lancaster, Steyn, Horne, and Smith

Saracens 3 (3)

Glasgow Warriors continued their fine form in the Investec Champions Cupwith victory over Saracens to set up a home last-16 tie against the Bulls.

With the scores coming from George Horne, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, and Kyle Steyn crossing for tries in the first half, Warriors surged to a 21-13 lead over their English opponents.

In the second half, Saracens enjoyed greater territory and possession but were unable to break through Glasgow’s towering defense.

In the final play, substitute Seb Stephen scored to earn the Scots’ four wins from four and a maximum of 20 points in the pool stage.

In the next round, Saracens will face a trip to Bath while they have now secured home advantage for a potential route to the semi-finals.

The atmosphere in Scotstoun was raucous, and the home side had their fans glued to their seats within ten minutes because they knew a win would earn them a top-two seeding.

Alex Craig embarked on a galloping run after selling a dummy inside his own half. Zander Fagerson took up the baton with a thunderous carry and Smith’s sharp hands slammed the ball wide to make it run through a gap to score.

Lucio Cinti, who had intercepted Huw Jones near the Sarries line before he could go in under the sticks from a line-out move, was indebted to the visitors.

After a brilliant chip-and-chase from George Horne, Juan Martin Gonzalez received a yellow card for cynically stopping the attack close to his own line. Warriors were well on top.

Although Glasgow kept banging at the door and a clever inside ball from Horne sent Steyn in on a fantastic line to slice through and go in under the posts, Saracens’ tryline defense was heroic.

On his 150th appearance in Glasgow, Jack Dempsey made a run to the line after the traffic was one-way and Horne was free to run through two tackles.

After Sarries finally made some significant inroads into Glasgow territory, Elliot Daly almost threw them off the line, but some titanic defense kept the Warriors’ 18-point lead at the break.

In the second half, the visitors came out stronger and began to fight Glasgow, who remained determined in their defense despite losing Kyle Rowe to the sin-bin for a clumsy high tackle on Rotimi Segun.

Warriors were put on the front foot once more when a brilliant break from Steyn gave them the lead. Smith headed for the line in search of the fourth try, but the ball was lost in the process.

When Stephen’s powerful rolling maul was overturned to a powerful roar from the Scotstoun crowd, the bonus point was assured that it did indeed occur in the final act.