{"id":12175,"date":"2026-04-04T22:37:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12175"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:37:03","slug":"champions-cup-glasgow-battle-past-bulls-to-reach-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12175","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup: Glasgow battle past Bulls to reach quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bulls backed their way into the last 16, qualifying for the knockouts despite losing three of their group matches, conceding a half century to Northampton and 61 points to Bristol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They picked hybrid teams for those contests. Here, they were mob-handed with 14 Springboks in their party, an amount of grunt which they unleashed on their hosts from early on, their reward coming from Pollard&#8217;s boot. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The visitors were in Glasgow with a conservative gameplan, all power and phases and pressure. Glasgow tried to play, as is their custom. To say it was a clash of styles was putting it mildly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Glasgow did not have territory against the wind. They had a couple of decent moments just after the Pollard penalty &#8211; one of them ending when Matt Fagerson ran on to a pass in the Bulls 22 only for it go forward off his face, the other when they messed up a lineout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The third time was brilliant, though. Dan Lancaster slipped the brilliant McDowall into a gap and the centre, in the team ahead of Huw Jones, galloped away. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bulls scrambled but Glasgow were relentless. Matt Fagerson kept things moving, he linked with George Horne and even though he was tackled close to the posts &#8211; and clearly hurt &#8211; he popped it to Williamson who smashed over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lancaster converted; 7-3 Glasgow. That soon became 8-7 to the South Africans when their muscle got its reward after multiple phases &#8211; hooker Grobbelaar going over in the corner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pollard put his side back in the lead on the half-hour mark, but Glasgow responded quickly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They had lost Horne to injury by then, but their gamble in going for touch with a penalty rather than posts paid off. Dempsey got the score in the end. No conversion, but they were a point in front again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That didn&#8217;t last. Pollard, from distance, kicked a third penalty just before the break. That was the good news for Bulls. The bad news was that they lost Kurt-Lee Arendse at half-time, not that this was a night for world-class wingers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With the benefit of the wind in their favour, Glasgow started to get on top. Their risky strategy of turning down shots at goal off Bulls&#8217; indiscretions and going for touch instead was a policy they never deviated from, even when it looked decidedly unwise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Early in the new half they had a kickable penalty, went for touch and lost the lineout. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They had another on 55 minutes &#8211; even closer this time &#8211; but tapped it instead of kicking it. Now they executed, Shickerling barging his way over for another unconverted score. A three-point game in Glasgow&#8217;s favour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McDowall&#8217;s try in the 72nd minute looked like settling it, but back came the Bulls with that score from Van Staden. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scotstoun held its breath, but then Hastings, with the last kick, sent the place into raptures. Glasgow march on, in style and substance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bulls backed their way into the last 16, qualifying for the knockouts despite losing three of their group matches, conceding a half century to Northampton and 61 points to Bristol. They picked hybrid teams for those contests. Here, they were mob-handed with 14 Springboks in their party, an amount of grunt which they unleashed on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}