Warriors shock Biarritz

Glasgow earned a gritty 9-6 victory over Biarritz to blow Pool Four wide open at the halfway stage.

Both these teams and Saracens have won two out of three games and all three teams will feel they have a legitimate chance of reaching the last eight.

For Glasgow that must seem an almost impossible dream but if they continue to grind out results like this, it could become a reality. Much will hinge on next week's re-match in the French south-west.

Biarritz can surely not play so badly again. The French giants have produced some fairly turgid displays in Europe over the years, but this was a new low.

They barely created a line break, had no more than two chances to score a try, failed to function at the lineout and knocked the ball on with monotonous regularity.

Staunch

As for the Warriors, they defended staunchly and kept the errors to a minimum. Dan Parks kicked all three of his attempts at goal and that was enough. A fine win, but this was no spectacle for the neutral.

Parks kicked a couple of early penalties as the Scots benefited from their superior earlier intensity.

Biarritz were clearly out of sorts and did not manage an attack for the first 25 minutes, but when they did eventually get into the Glasgow half they came away with points, Julien Dupuy knocking over a penalty for an offside.

Two horrible knock-ons from Marcelo Bosch and Nicolas Brusque summed up Biarritz' attacking ineptitude, and the only other notable events of the first period were a successful penalty from Parks and an attempt in injury time from Dupuy which fell just short.

Dupuy was wide with another long-range penalty attempt early in the second half and those two misses were to prove crucial.

Impeccable

Biarritz spent most of the second half on the front foot without creating much of note, but Glasgow's defence was impeccable.

Damien Traille almost found a way through, but his burst up the middle was well defended by Kelly Brown, while the entire pack defended its line at close quarters during a spell of sustained pressure as Biarritz attempted to burrow over.

Parks almost managed an interception try but for the most part the Warriors had to soak up the pressure.

They were also helped by more errors from the visitors. In injury time a try looked inevitable but Dupuy knocked on at the back of a ruck in front of the posts and then Brusque took the wrong option out wide when a pass would surely have resulted in a try. He then - almost inevitably - knocked on in the tackle.

The final whistle seemed to take an age to arrive but when it did it sparked suitably jubilant scenes. Scottish rugby has been in the doldrums but a result like this is a breath of fresh air.