Glasgow punish 14-men Cardiff

Macauley Cook had given the Blues an early lead but tries from Sam Johnson and Alex Dunbar, either side of Taufa’ao Filise’s red card, saw the Warriors lead at the break.

Tries for Ruaridh Jackson and Samuela Vunisa secured the bonus point, the Warriors’ eighth of the campaign, with Leo Sarto and Nikola Matawalu adding the gloss to the scoreline late on.

The visitors had the perfect start when captain for the evening Gareth Anscombe pointed to the posts with just 22 seconds gone and Jarrod Evans put the Blues 3-0 ahead.

And when the Blues worked an overlap on the left, second row Cook was in the right place at the right time to dive over and extend their lead with Evans adding the conversion.

An excellent cross-field kick from Peter Horne found Sam Johnson on 19 minutes and the centre brushed off two tackles before touching down for the hosts’ first try.

Flyhalf Horne added the extras before Evans replied with a penalty before Nigel Owens, in conjunction with the TMO, decided to show a red card to Filise for dangerous play.

With the man advantage, Glasgow were soon able to take the lead through Alex Dunbar as he forced his way over from close range on the half-hour mark.

Horne, again, added the extras and the Warriors led by a single point at the break.

Evans restored the Blues lead early in the second-half but Glasgow were soon knocking on the door again as Olly Robinson paid the price for one too many infringements with a yellow card.

And with Blues down to 13, there was space for Horne to spin a high pass out wide to fullback Jackson to catch and dot down out-wide.

The Glasgow flyhalf followed up his assist with the conversion and the Warriors led 21-16 after 56 minutes.

A bonus point try wasn’t far away though as the Warriors continued to dominate territory and possession with Vanisa forcing his way over from close range.

And the Warriors remain comfortably top of Conference A with Sarto touching down an excellent grubber kick into the corner with three minutes to go.

But there was still time for a piece of individual brilliance from Matawalu who collected his own chip over the Blues defence before sprinting away and scoring under the posts.

The scorers:

For Glasgow Warriors:

Tries: Johnson, Dunbar, Jackson, Vunisa, Sarto, Matawalu

Cons: Horne 5

For Cardiff Blues:

Try: Cook

Con: Evans

Pens: Evans 3

Yellow Card: Robinson (Cardiff Blues, 52)

Red Card: Filise (Cardiff Blues, 29)

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Ruaridh Jackson, 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Leonardo Sarto, 10 Peter Horne, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Matt Smith, 6 Callum Gibbins (captain), 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Kiran McDonald, 3 Siua Halanukonuka, 2 George Turner, 1 Alex Allan.

Replacements: 16 James Malcolm, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 D’Arcy Rae, 19 Brian Alainu’uese, 20 Samu Vunisa, 21 George Horne, 22 Adam Hastings, 23 Niko Matawalu.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Gareth Anscombe (captain), 14 Owen Lane, 13 Garyn Smith, 12 Willis Halaholo, 11 Blaine Scully, 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Olly Robinson, 6 Josh Turnbull, 5 Macauley Cook, 4 George Earle, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Kirby Myhill, 1 Brad Thyer.

Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Anton Peikrishvili, 19 James Down, 20 Damian Welch, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Rey Lee-Lo, 23 Tom James.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)

Assistant referees: Lloyd Linton (Scotland), Keith Allen (Scotland)

TMO: Andrew Cymene (Scotland)

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