Glasgow produced perhaps their most dominant display ever in Europe as they opened their Champions Cup campaign dismantling twice-champions Leicester Tigers with a five-try rout at Scotstoun.
The Warriors scored three tries in six first half minutes to set the tone for the night and then two more with interceptions in the second half, but it was a glorious all round performance from Gregor Townsend’s team.
Italian wing Leo Sarto scored two tries and had a big hand in another to win man of the match, but Finn Russell, Henry Pygros and Stuart Hogg directed operations superbly and the pack had their best night of the season, with Tim Swinson and Jonny Gray in particular outstanding in attack and defence.
Leicester suffered their biggest ever defeat in Europe but probably got off lightly with referee Mathieu Raynal generous to a fault as penalties mounted against them, and the Tigers new Australian centre Matt Toomua should have been sent off for a first half tip tackle on Finn Russell.
Glasgow lost Alex Dunbar to injury before kick off and had early difficulties with indiscipline but felt hard done by after an exchange of yellow cards that hardly seemed equitable.
Owen Williams kicked a seventh minute penalty into a swirling wind which reflected the count against the home side but there was controversy when Toomua, in his Tigers debut, up-ended Finn Russell with a violent tip tackle in midfield.
The Wallaby was fortunate Russell protected his own landing with his elbow but the Scotstoun crowd were furious when Raynal’s card was yellow and not red.
They were heartened when Hogg booted the resultant penalty from his own half to tie the scores, but angered again when Ryan Wilson was shown a yellow card for persistent infringement. Leicester capitalised immediately with a trademark maul drive for a try by wing Thompstone, converted by Williams.
Glasgow’s response was devastating, with three tries in the space of six minutes to grab control of the match.
First Sarto showed a finisher’s instinct by darting through a gap after Russell had made a half-break, and then almost straight from kick-off Glasgow attacked again with Pyrgos and Gray probing, Fraser Brown blasting through tackles close to the line.
Russell converted both and then Sarto made more ground off solid scrum ball, Hogg dodged close to the line and Pyrgos nipped over from point blank for an unconverted score, and the score had gone from 3-10 to 22-10 before the Tigers could get a breath.
Williams kicked a penalty as Glasgow’s indiscipline continuing to be a problem, and Hogg tried an even longer penalty which drifted wide to end a breathless first half.
The pace understandably dropped in the second half until tenacious defence allowed Russell to stretch the Warriors’ lead in 54 minutes.
Then the standoff sparked a thrilling attack from his own 22 carried on by Sarto and Rory Hughes was only just held up at the Tigers’ line.
Tiger’s replacement prop Munipola was sin-binned after two scrum penalties, but the Warriors missed a glorious chance when Gordon Reid couldn’t hold Pyrgos’ pass.
Russell’s second penalty stretched the lead to more than two tries with 12 minutes left, but the win and the bonus were secured when Matt Tait spilled the ball on the attack and Mark Bennett raced 80 metres to score, Russell converting.
Leicester’s night was complete when replacement Freddie Burns telegraphed a pass to Sarto who intercepted and returned it 60 metres for Glasgow’s fifth and final try, again converted by Russell.
Att: 7500
Glasgow: S Hogg; L Sarto, M Bennett, S Johnson (N Grigg 33), R Hughes (S Lamont 65); F Russell, H Pyrgos (A Price 70); G Reid (A Allan 65), F Brown (P MacArthur 70), Z Fagerson (S Puafisi 63); T Swinson, J Gray (M Fagerson 78); R Harley, R Wilson (L Wynne 73), J Strauss.
Leicester Tigers: T Veainu; A Thompstone, M Tait, M Toomua (F Burns 70), T Brady (F Burns 70); O Williams, B Youngs (S Harrison 71); E Genge (L Munipola 56), T Youngs (H Thacker 44), D Cole (G Bateman 55); D Barrow (E Slater 65), G Kitchener; M Fitzgerald, B O’Connor (W Evans 71), L McCaffrey.
Ref: M Raynal (FFR)
