A virtuoso man of the match performance by Finn Russell lifted Glasgow to their second win over French champions Racing 92 in a week and kept their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign on track.
The Scotland stand-off was heavily involved in all three tries as the Warriors completely dominated a powerful Racing team – fielding a huge pack collectively weighing in at almost a tonne – for the first 50 minutes.
Tries from Josh Strauss on his 100th appearance, Fraser Brown and Ali Price with eight points from Russell’s boot had Glasgow clear at 23-0 ahead early in the second-half, but if there was one black mark it was the failure to score a fourth try for a bonus point in the last half hour which may prove crucial for quarter-final qualification.
Racing’s selection of a massive pack turned out to a tactical blunder on the fast Scotstoun pitch, Glasgow running them off their feet but also overmatching them physically at the breakdown and even in the setpiece at times.
Russell – also man of the match in the 23-14 win in Paris at the weekend – directed operations almost faultlessly to again outshine Dan Carter, who was taken off after 50 minutes having barely played a part in the play.
“I give all the credit to the pack who gave us so much good ball over both these games,” said Russell afterwards. “We knew this would be a massive game after winning in Paris and the guys fronted up to them really well.”
The Warriors couldn’t have scripted the start and the first half any better, their pace and tempo simply too much for the monster Racing pack who were gasping for air after barely 15 minutes play.
Russell’s brilliant night started after just four minutes with a lovely chip over the top of the Racing defence, Tommy Seymour snatching the ball and running into the 22 before feeding Stuart Hogg, who stepped inside a tackler to give the scoring pass to centurion Strauss for the opening score.
That went unconverted, but it was Russell’s only blip of the half as he was twice involved in a sweeping move after 12 minutes which ended with his short pass sending Brown crashing through on a direct line to score the second try.
The stand-off converted that one and added a penalty as a ponderous Racing simply couldn’t get enough ball to get out of their half.
Russell then dummied his way through and nearly put in Hogg, but after the full-back was held short Glasgow forced a scrum and pushed the big French pack off the ball, winning another penalty for their stand-off to push his side up to 18-0.
Racing finally got an opportunity just as time expired in the first half but Seymour’s tackle on Marc Andreu right at the corner kept the French champions scoreless at half-time.
The Warriors ended the match as a contest within seven minutes of the re-start, Price scoring his third try in as many weeks sniping off a ruck at pace after Russell had sucked in defenders on a break into the 22.
But there was something of an anti-climax for the sellout crowd as the Warriors seemed to run out of steam and Racing got some momentum with replacements on.
The French had come close to scoring three times, replacement prop Gomes Sa fumbling at the line under a tackle from the ubiquitous Russell.
But Glasgow didn’t ever really come close to a fourth bonus try and finally in the dying moments replacement scrum-half Chauveau nipped off a broken maul to at least get Racing on the scoreboard, another substitute Dambielle converting.
Att 7351
Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; T Seymour, A Dunbar, S Johnson, L Jones; F Russell, A Price; G Reid, F Brown, Z Fagerson; T Swinson, J Gray (capt); R Harley, R Wilson, J Strauss
Replacements: C Flynn, A Allan for Reid 70, S Puafisi for Fagerson 63, B Alainu’uese, C Fusaro for Strauss 70, H Pyrgos for Price 57, M Bennett for Johnson 63, S Lamont
Racing 92: B Dulin; T Thomas, C Laulala, A Tuitavke, M Andreu; D Carter, M Machenaud (c); V Afatia, C Chat, B Tameifuna; G Grobler, F van der Merwe; W Lauret, C Masoe, L Nakarawa
Replacements: D Szarzewski for Chat 52, E Ben Arous for Afatia 40, C Gomes Sa for Tameifuna 40, T Dubarry for van der Merwe 53, A Claassen for Lauret 71, X Chauveau for Machenaud 59, B Dambielle for Carter 59, J Rokocoko for Tuitavke 14.
Ref: G Clancy (IRFU)