Don’t you love it when a carefully-laid plan works out? It’s even better when that plan looks like it might have disintegrated into a massive blunder.
It nearly happened at Scotstoun on Saturday in the Glasgow’s final Guinness PRO12 regular season game against Ulster, but for the Warriors’ resilience and the brilliance of their Scotland full back, Stuart Hogg.
Hogg’s genius solo try in 55 minutes lit a fire in the Warriors that, despite the capacity 10,000 crowd and outstanding atmosphere, had previously been damp and far from pyrotechnic.
Having toiled aimlessly to even win the match against a Ulster 2nd XV far less get the four try bonus point they needed for a home play-off semi-final – the Warriors had new life in one deft chip and the effortless acceleration of their best strike weapon.
Just 18 minutes after that glorious score, Richie Vernon stormed over for the fourth try and all was sweet in the Scotstoun stands, a 32-10 win secured and Friday’s semi-final secured. Inbetween, Finn Russell scored two tries and bagged the man of the match award but there was no question Hogg was the spark that lit the flickering flame.
Glasgow’s potential blunder was winning the toss and choosing to play against the strong wind. Chasing a score, you’d have thought the Warriors a team who have scored most of their points this season in the first hour of games would have wanted the significant advantage first, especially when Ulster were resting their stars on their bench.
At half-time, it looked like an almighty mistake. The Warriors were 11-6 down, their tactical kicking had been dreadful and their handling inept, while over in Galway rivals Ospreys had taken a similar wind at their backs against Connacht and were one try away from the bonus point they needed to overhaul the Warriors.
Ten minutes into the second half Glasgow looked almost desperate, head coach Gregor Townsend throwing on five replacements at once almost as a last resort.
Townsend, having the good grace afterwards not to even pretend that his plan had worked seamlessly, correctly targeted the momentum changer.
“The catalyst was Stuart’s try,” he said. “You could see the whole place lifting.
“We hadn’t fired a shot in the first 50 minutes. We knew it would be tough into the wind in that first half but we felt we’d get the advantage if we could just get our game going.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t play that well in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But the last half-hour was pretty good.”
Hogg’s intervention was telling and also timely. A year ago he was in the doghouse at Scotstoun with coaches and team-mates, left out of the PRO12 playoffs as he had been agitating for an early exit from his contract to, of all places, Ulster.
But having reapplied himself this season and signed a new deal, he’s had a superb season for both club and country.
There was renewed purpose and belief in Glasgow once he scored. Amazingly, Ospreys didn’t get their bonus try in Galway and Glasgow ended up top of the PRO12 pile – most importantly with the semi at the ground where they haven’t lost a PRO12 game for 18 months.
When it all works out, it’s sweet indeed.