Glasgow Warriors left speechless in Italy as they fritter victory away

Warriors looked on course for consecutive wins following last weekend’s bonus-point success over the Sharks after establishing a 14-3 half-time lead. Things were looking good.

But replacement full-back Smith dramatically split the posts from distance with the final action, adding to Tommaso Menoncello’s try and eight points from fly-half Jacob Umaga as the Italian hosts bounced back from their round-one loss to Connacht.

Glasgow were missing key men in Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey but Sione Tuipulotu was making his first outing since he scored the first British & Irish Lions Test try of the tour of Australia and Kyle Steyn was playing his first game since fracturing his hand playing for Scotland against Samoa on the summer tour.

“I don’t really know what to say, to be honest,” said skipper Steyn when asked how the game had slipped away. “I was really proud of our effort in the first half and the way we played and the intensity we played with.

“I don’t really know how we’ve lost that game. Benetton fought back well but we’ve got to find a way to be better and put that to bed.”

‘We just couldn’t do that’

Asked specifically about the second-half turnaround, Steyn added: “We knew they were going to fight back and they did fight back in front of their fans but we had moments where we could have scored and we could have capitalised on big moments but we just couldn’t do that.”

Lock Jare Oguntibeju crossed to give Glasgow an 18th-minute lead at Stadio Comunale di Monigo, with Adam Hastings slotting the extras.

Benetton briefly responded through an Umaga penalty before full-back Josh McKay’s score, converted by Hastings, put Glasgow in control at the break.

Yet the Warriors paid a heavy price for a scoreless second half as Italy centre Menoncello touched down in the 50th minute, before England-born Umaga added the conversion and a later penalty, prior to Smith’s decisive contribution from around 40 metres.