Depleted Warriors Side Fall At Home

Celtic Warriors 9 - 19 Glasgow Rugby Brewery Field   Att: 2,560 Referee: Alan Lewis Friday 19th September 2003, 19:05

The Celtic Warriors' bubble burst with a 10-point home loss to Glasgow at the Brewery Field in the opening round of the Celtic Cup.

The Warriors lead the Celtic League table, but losing nine players to World Cup duty and key members Jonny Bryant and Nick Kelly to injury proved too much as they fell to a clinical Scottish side. Wales legend Neil Jenkins opened the scoring in the eighth minute with a penalty goal, and added another on the 20-minute mark as poor handling ruined chances for both sides. Opposite number Calvin Howarth halved the margin with a short-range shot from in front, and Glasgow could have taken a surprise lead when Sean Lamont intercepted a Jenkins pass and raced for the try-line 75 metres away. Unfortunately for the Scottish winger, he was being chased by Tongan Aisea Havili - one of the fastest men in world rugby - and he was dragged down metres short. Howarth had the final say of the first 40 minutes, and his penalty goal meant the sides went into the changing rooms with six points each, and the Brewery Field crowd still waiting for the first try. It didn't take long for the second half to provide them with one, but there weren't many cheers when it happened. Some slick passing in the backline brought Glasgow into the enemy's 22, and the power of backrower and skipper Cammie Mather was too much for the home defence as he went over for a five-pointer. Barely 2 minutes later, Howarth spotted a yawning gap around the fringes of a ruck and went over untouched. He missed the conversion again, but the Scottish side were sitting on a 16-6 only 8 minutes into the second half. Jenkins and Howarth swapped penalty goals, but the Warriors' inability to hold on to the ball in the tackle situation proved fatal.

Celtic Warriors V Glasgow Rugby   P D C T Pos Player Player Pos T C D P   Matthew Nuthall 15 Stuart Moffat Gareth Wyatt 14 Sean Lamont Shaun James 13 Jon Steel David Bishop 12 Alan Bulloch Aisea Havili Kaufusi 11 Gareth Maclure 3 Neil Jenkins 10 Calvin Howarth 1 3 Paul John 9 Mark McMillan Phil Booth 1 Andrew Kelly Andrew Joy 2 Simon Gunn Martin Jones 3 Lee Harrison Ryan Jones 4 Andrew Hall Nathan Budgett 5 Joe Beardshaw Richard Parks 6 Cameron Mather 1 Cory Harris 7 Andrew Wilson Richard Bryan 8 Roland Reid Replacements Gerald Cox 16 Scott Lawson Chris Horsman 17 Euan Murray Deiniol Jones 18 Nathan Ross Mark Lewis 19 Paul Dearlove Jim Donovan 20 Dan Parks Emyr Lewis 21 Rory McKay Gareth Cull 22 Richard McKnight Penalty Tries 0 0

All Pictures: ©  http://www.inpho.ie/, Huw Evans Agency,  Graham Stuart