Warriors Move to Third in Championship as Tributes Paid to Former Player.
Glasgow Warriors claimed third place in the United Rugby Championships, moving five points behind Leinster. They achieved this with a 40- 12 win over Zaire as Scotstoun. With a hat trick from Johnny Matthews and tries from Oli Kebble, Ryan Wilson and Jamie Dobie.
Also, this weekend, the warriors paid tribute to former Warriors player Federico Aramburu, who was tragically killed a fortnight ago at the age of 42. He played for the Warriors during the 2011 -2012 season and was sent off with an Argentina flag and a folded ‘Pumas’ shirt on the pitch during the silence.
Rob Harley who was a former teammate of Aramburu, couldn’t hold back his tears as he paid tribute. This was his 261st game for the club and his last season before retirement. This will possibly be his final game at Scotstoun.
Warriors wasted no time at the start with Matthews getting his first try and Thompson converting within the first five minutes of play. This feat was repeated after the ten-minute mark bringing the Warriors tally to fourteen. Before the brake Zaire got the try but failed to convert and things got worse in the second half. Dobie’s try with another conversion was made after the start of the second half. During the last twenty minutes of the second half Zaire’s luck went from bad to worse with flanker Potu Leavasa was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Forbes.
Mathews got his third try of the game and this sealed the victory for the Warriors as Zaire made another try through Luca Andreani and Rizzi converted. But it was too little too late, as the errors in play from numerous games was shown in Scotstoun as Zaire mistakes were the Warriors gains.
Warriors head coach said: “We showed a bit of ruthlessness tonight. The important thing for me was that after a good start, we came out after the interval and won the second half which we haven’t done recently in a couple of games, so really pleased with that. Our lineout maul was a good weapon for us and we thought it would be against this opposition. The hard work to get us into positions to be able to maul from the whole team was outstanding. It was a good win and we’re back on track with five points and now it’s off to South Africa for our next two league games.”