Glasgow Warriors 25-21 Vodacom Bulls

Max Williamson, Jack Dempsey, Patrick Schickerling and Stafford McDowall – in an Investec Player of the Match-winning display – crossed the whitewash to seal Franco Smith’s squad’s passage to the last-eight, battling past the men from Pretoria in front of a sold-out Scotstoun.

With the wind at their back, the visitors were the ones to make the early running in the Scotstoun downpour, as captain Marcell Coetzee and Cameron Hanekom led the early barrage. The Glasgow defence held firm however, the Fagerson brothers contributing an early turnover apiece to keep the men in white at bay.

Handre Pollard’s penalty with 12 minutes on the clock would eventually open the scoring, only for the Warriors to immediately set about establishing themselves in opposition territory. The breakthrough would arrive on 18 minutes, and in sublime fashion. Dan Lancaster’s inside ball sent McDowall charging through a gap, the centre beating three defenders en route to the 22. Matt Fagerson was the next to burst through the Bulls defence before offloading to George Horne, and whilst Kurt-Lee Arendse’s last-ditch tackle denied the scrum-half the score, Williamson was on hand to gather the offload and crash over. Lancaster added the extras, and the hosts had a 7-3 lead.

Back came the Bulls, replying in kind to register their own opening score of the evening. Playing with advantage inside the Glasgow 22, swift handling found Johan Grobelaar on the touchline, the hooker squeezing over in the corner to touch down. Pollard’s conversion was off target, leaving it as a one-point ball-game.

Pollard added three more points to the Bulls tally as the game ticked past the half-hour mark, only for their failure to deal with the restart to cost them. The concession of a penalty for offside allowed Lancaster to direct his team to the corner, and the resulting maul proved too much for the Bulls to handle. Dempsey was the man to emerge with the ball, the conversion drifting wide to leave the score at 12-11 to the home side.

A third successful penalty of the night from Pollard gave the visitors a 14-11 advantage at the interval, setting the stage for winner-takes-all second 40. The Bulls were first to test their opponents’ defence as Stedman Gans was a fingertip away from latching on to Pollard’s chip ahead, before a thunderous clearing kick from McDowall saw the Warriors gain fully 70 metres to the acclaim of the Warrior Nation.

With the noise building inside a sold-out Scotstoun, it was the Warriors who would strike. The power of the maul drew a penalty five metres from the Bulls try-line, and from there the Warriors went to work. The hard-charging Dempsey was chopped down two metres out, but there was to be no stopping Schickerling as the prop thundered round the corner to take Ben Afshar’s pass and bundle over in the corner. Lancaster couldn’t quite bring the conversion around enough, but the Warriors led 17-14 with 22 minutes to play.

The Warrior Nation knew the next score could be crucial, and as the game entered its final 10 minutes, the volume inside Scotstoun rose yet further. It would be the home side that struck the vital blow; Rory Darge’s incision into the Bulls 22 was followed by a subtle offload to Jamie Bhatti, and when the prop presented quick ball to Afshar, the Warriors knew just what to do. Sione Tuipulotu and Lancaster combined to free Josh McKay, who in turn sent McDowall haring over in the corner to give the hosts an eight-point lead.

Marco van Staden powered over from close range with four minutes remaining for a try that – allied to David Kriel’s conversion – brought the visitors back within a point, but the resolve of the Warriors never wavered. McKay’s searing break from 22 to 22 saw the Bulls concede a penalty in the shadow of their own posts, Elrigh Louw seeing yellow from the officials for good measure. With the clock ticking into the final minute, Adam Hastings took every one of his allotted 60 seconds to line up, then slot the kick in front of the uprights, sealing a victory that saw all of Glasgow’s grit writ large.

The stakes ratchet up another notch in just seven days’ time, as Smith’s men host Toulon in what will be their first-ever home tie in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-finals.

Following a member pre-sale, tickets will go on general sale at 10am on Tuesday 7 April for this landmark Investec Champions Cup Quarter-Final at Scotstoun Stadium (Glasgow Warriors v RC Toulon, Saturday 11 April, kick-off 3pm).