Jamie Dobie’s double paves way for Glasgow Warriors in Wales and gap opens up on rivals

For the second week in a row they put 40-plus points on Welsh opposition and this victory over the Ospreys lifted them up to third in the United Rugby Championship.

It is early days but, after four rounds of fixtures, Franco Smith’s side are 10 points ahead of Leinster who suffered a surprise loss to Munster on Saturday, their third defeat of the season.

It’s Munster and the Stormers who lead the standings, both on 19 points, three clear of Glasgow who scored six tries in their 42-17 win at Brewery Field.

Dobie at the double

The Warriors made nine personnel changes and three positional switches to the team that thrashed the Dragons at Scotstoun last week and although this was a far tougher test, they came through with flying colours.

Jamie Dobie was particularly good. Starting the game at scrum-half and finishing it on the wing, he scored two tries and came close to making it a hat-trick. His pace caused the Ospreys problems all night but there is so much more to his game than that. He sniped, passed well and controlled the pace of the game brilliantly for the visitors.

Smith: I was very nervous

Also among the tries for Glasgow were Kyle Steyn, Johnny Matthews, Euan Ferrie and Macenzzie Duncan. For Matthews, it was his 50th in Glasgow colours in his 101st game. Adam Hastings was immaculate off the tee, landing five from five, with replacement Dan Lancaster converting the final try.

Despite the margin of victory, Franco Smith admitted to some nerves in the build-up to the game but was ultimately very satisfied.

“I was very nervous around this one, and I thought tonight the boys stepped up from an emotional and from a creativity point of view,” said the Warriors head coach. “We knew that it was going to be tough and the Ospreys didn't disappoint. They were really tough to break down and fortunately I think the try just before half-time [by Matthews] allowed us to come out of a different mindset.”

Penalty try and yellow card overturned

It is the first time since April that Glasgow have won back-to-back in the URC and Smith had every right to feel content.

Glasgow survived a sticky moment in the third minute when Andrea Piardi awarded the Ospreys a penalty try and sent Kyle Rowe to the sin-bin for collapsing a maul as the Welsh side exerted considerable pressure. But the Italian referee overturned both decisions after it became apparent that it was the Ospreys who had offended first, at the preceding lineout.

There were confused faces on the field but it seemed like the correct call in the end and Glasgow took full advantage, Dobie opening the scoring. It all came from a Warriors lineout and it was Dobie who took the crash ball. He wasn’t able to get over that time but it came back to him and he made no mistake from close range.

The Ospreys had enjoyed a good win over Zebre last week and were keen to ride the momentum and they got back in level terms in the 13th minute with a try which bore a striking resemblance to Dobie’s. It was his opposite number, Reuben Morgan-Williams, who profited and Dan Edwards landed the conversion.

Murphy Walker caught high

The conditions were tricky but Glasgow were prepared to throw the ball about and they reestablished their lead with a lovely score. Steyn finished the move but most of the Warriors backline was involved as they went from one side of Brewery Field to the other before Stafford McDowall found his captain in plenty of space to run in the try

An Edwards penalty cut Glasgow’s lead to 14-10 but the Ospreys then lost their captain to the sin-bin. Dewi Lake got it all wrong as he tried to tackle Murphy Walker, catching the big prop far too high.

For the 10 minutes that Lake was in the bin Glasgow pummelled the Ospreys but could not find a way through. However, when the errant skipper returned to the field, the visitors were able to nick their third try with the last play of the half, Matthews - who else? - at the end of a lineout drive.

Taking a 21-10 lead into the sheds was a more than decent scenario for the visitors but any notion that the game had been won was quashed early in the second half when Luke Morgan scored the Ospreys' second try after some lovely handling by his team-mates. Edwards’ conversion brought them to within four points of the Warriors but that was as close as they got.

Smith’s men turned things up a notch thereafter. Dobie got his second of the evening in the 51st minute, picking up at the breakdown and finding a gap in the home defence which he exploited to the full for the bonus-point try.

The scrum-half came close to notching his third soon after but just couldn’t get to Steyn’s grubber before the Ospreys defenders.

Ferrie added a fifth try after a short pass from Ollie Smith and Macenzzie Duncan rounded things off with his first try for the club with four minutes remaining.

Teams and scorers at Brewery Field

Scorers: Ospreys: Tries: R Morgan-Williams, L Morgan. Cons: Edwards 2. Pens: Edwards. Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Dobie 2, Steyn, Matthews, Ferrie, Duncan. Cons: Hastings 5, Lancaster.

Yellow card: D Lake (Ospreys, 28min)

Ospreys: J Walsh; D Kasende, P Cokanasiga (M Nagy 63), T Florence, L Morgan (I Hopkins 53); D Edwards, R Morgan-Williams (L Davies 72); G Thomas (G Phillips 51), D Lake (E Lewis 55), B Warren (K Hire 62), R Davies, J Fender, J Ratti (H Sutton 9-29; 63), M Morse (G Evans 63), R Moriarty.

Glasgow Warriors: O Smith; K Steyn, S McDowall, S Tuipulotu, K Rowe (B Afshar 68); A Hastings (D Lancaster 68), J Dobie; P Schickerling (N McBeth 52), J Matthews (S Stephen 68), M Walker (S Talakai 52), M Williamson (A Craig 52), A Samuel (J Oguntibeju 76), E Ferrie, A Fraser (M Duncan 72), M Fagerson.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR).