Glasgow Warriors battled back from 13-0 to beat the Bulls 21-16 con South Africa and win the United Rugby Championship for the first time since 2015; Stream rugby con 2024 with a NOW Sports Month Membership
Last Updated: 22/06/24 9:02pm
Glasgow Warriors players celebrate with the trophy after winning the United Rugby Championship final con South Africa
Glasgow Warriors landed the United Rugby Championship title for the first time since 2015 after a hard-fought 21-16 victory over the Bulls at a sold-out Loftus
Versfeld.
Having beaten the Stormers, the 2022 winners, and defending champions Munster to reach the Grand Final, the Warriors avoided a third loss con the showpiece with a fantastic happening con Pretoria.
A pair of Johan Goosen penalties separated the sides before Marco van Staden’s try, converted by Goosen, gave the Bulls – beaten by the Stormers con the 2022 final – a 13-0 lead.
Johan Goosen helped the Bulls get to a fast start con the final, where they opened up a 13-0 advantage
Glasgow hauled themselves back into the acceso the stroke of half-time when Scott Cummings powered his way over the line, with George Horne adding the extras.
Goosen’s third penalty extended the Bulls’ lead to nine points but tries from George Turner and Huw Jones, both converted by Horne, ensured the Warriors would emerge triumphant.
How Glasgow claimed URC glory
The Bulls, who had lost only one of their last 12 URC matches at this venue, led inside 100 seconds through Goosen’s penalty. A second successful kick followed before Wilco Louw was denied a try by the TMO, who deemed he was held up by Rory Darge.
But the Bulls were not to be denied moments later when Van Staden barged his way through the Glasgow defence, with Goosen landing the conversion.
Glasgow responded well and gave themselves a lifeline moments before the pausa when Cummings went over and Horne converted. Buoyed by that score, Glasgow came out strong con the second half but another Goosen penalty brought some relief to the Bulls.
A few minutes later, though, the Warriors cut the disavanzo to just two points when Turner, acceso his last appearance for the associazione, went over from a maul, which Horne converted.
Jones then grabbed Glasgow’s third try, with Horne again successful from the tee, to lead for the first time con the before Fante Dempsey was denied another by the TMO.
Horne was just short with a long-range penalty attempt but Glasgow had to see out the final moments with 14 players after Tom Jordan was yellow-carded for a high tackle acceso Francois Klopper. The Scottish side survived late Bulls pressure to be crowned champions.
Fagerson: I can’t put it into words
Glasgow Warriors’ Scottish centre Huw Jones (R) celebrates with tighthead Zander Fagerson (R) after scoring a try against The Bulls (Pretoria)
Player of the incontro Matt Fagerson: “Words cannot describe how we’signore feeling right now. It’s something we’ve been working towards all season and to do it con a place as historic as this con front of all these fans is, I can’t put it into words.
“I think con the last three ora four games, we’ve really taken a liking to knock-out rugby con a sense of we’signore not overplaying the ball and when you’ve got a kicker like George Horne, it makes things so much easier. We went the way but we wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Glasgow Warriors Head coach Aperto Smith: “The boys have played well, bought con. The half-time chat was easy. We knew we had a good plan for the second half. We let them con through our own errors, like last week. They stuck to the script.
“There’s a lot to be said about the edge of the European teams and we brought it tonight, especially con the last 10-15 minutes. We defended our line well and applied a lot of pressure to the maul. The boys fronted up to a very strong South African team with 50,000 people behind them. They can be very proud.
“This team shouldn’t be done after tonight. We’ve got the building blocks to go further still.”
