{"id":626545,"date":"2026-10-10T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626545\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:58:09","slug":"glasgow-v-connacht-five-takeaways-as-irish-mauled-to-death-and-bundee-aki-suffers-another-lippy-outburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/626545\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow v Connacht: Five takeaways as Irish \u2018mauled to death\u2019 and Bundee Aki suffers another \u2018lippy\u2019 outburst"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a deserved 36-19 win for Glasgow<\/a> over Connacht in Friday night\u2019s URC fixture at Scotstoun, Planet Rugby selects five takeaways from the round three action.<\/p>\n

The top line<\/p>\n

19 weeks after these clubs clashed at Scotstoun in a tense URC quarter-final that was won 33-21 by the hosts, Glasgow prevailed again in stormier conditions.<\/p>\n

That balmier late May clash was a match-up between the league\u2019s first- and eighth-placed sides following the end of the 2025\/26 regular season. Here, with two rounds completed in the new campaign, it was fifth hosting 10th, but the outcome was the same as five months ago.<\/p>\n

It was no surprise \u2013 it was at Firhill way back in September 2010 when Connacht last won away to Glasgow, so this latest outcome was merely adding another L to an already lengthy list of deflating results, only this time the visitors were mauled to death as four of the five Glasgow tries stemmed from the maul.<\/p>\n

The Warriors were forced into a pre-match reshuffle. With the ill Kyle Rowe dropping out, originally selected scrum-half Jamie Dobie switched to the wing and George Horne was promoted from the bench.<\/p>\n

Connacht started the brighter and while two penalties given up at the breakdown were an initial frustration in the opposition 22, there was no stopping Sean Jansen in the 16th minute on second phase after an offside penalty against Dan Lancaster.<\/p>\n

An off-feet ruck intervention, though, from Mack Hansen provided Glasgow with their first invite into the visitors\u2019 22 and the situation ended with Gregor Hiddleston\u2019s 20th minute unconverted maul try.<\/p>\n

A scrum penalty win booted down the touchline was the prompt for the even meatier maul that produced their follow-up try 13 minutes later, a 30-plus seconds shunt travelling from about 18 metres out and leaving Rory Darge celebrating the converted score and a 12-7 lead.<\/p>\n

It got better before the interval for the Darge-inspired Warriors. A third Connacht infringement in quick succession resulted in Sam Illo\u2019s sin-binning, and the outcome was Hiddleston touching down off a maul bolstered by several backs joining.<\/p>\n

This 12-point, 19-7 point gap soon widened when successive Lancaster and Dobie kicks left Josh McKay claiming the bonus-point try on 43 minutes, but the 26-7 advantage was trimmed four minutes later with Josh Ioane finishing a lengthy Connacht attack.<\/p>\n

It meant the sin bin period ended 14-7 to Glasgow, and the riposte clearly awoke Ioane\u2019s attacking senses as he was racing over again in the 60th minute for an unconverted try that left it 26-19.<\/p>\n

Connacht\u2019s comeback, though, was swiftly wrecked by the carded Josh Murphy\u2019s lack of a wrap tackling Seb Stephen. Down a forward, what developed was predictable as Glasgow<\/a> kicked to the corner and mauled over for Stephen\u2019s 65th-minute try.<\/p>\n

Fourteen points up, the hosts complicated things with a 73rd minute yellow card for Scott Cummings. But having clung on for a draw last weekend against Ulster<\/a> when finishing with 13 players, they had good practice in this situation and they saw out the danger without conceding any bonus points.<\/p>\n

This was helped by Bundee Aki\u2019s penalised verbal outburst to the referee, and then Lancaster\u2019s clock-in-the-red penalty kick.<\/p>\n

Peter O\u2019Mahony reveals the coach he would choose over \u2018different animal\u2019 Rassie Erasmus<\/a><\/p>\n

Shaky Irish set-piece<\/p>\n

This match\u2019s video analysis won\u2019t be an easy watch for new Connacht<\/a> scrum coach Trevor Woodman and John Muldoon, their lineout and maul\/forwards coach.<\/p>\n

Woodman, the 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning prop with England, was recruited from Gloucester for this season, but his scrum conceded six penalties in last weekend\u2019s plucky heist at Benetton with Francois van Wyk and Finlay Bealham as its starters, and the coughing up of two more in quick succession at Scotstoun was another wounding episode.<\/p>\n

Connacht were still 7-5 ahead when loosehead Billy Bohan was penalised on opposition ball, and with tighthead Illo penalised two minutes later on his team\u2019s own feed, the die was cast for the Glasgow power surge that was two more maul tries before the interval to add to the one that had already got them on the board.<\/p>\n

Yes, the maul law tweak has certainly enhanced the odds for the attacking team, but the concession of a hat-trick of maul tries by Connacht in a 24-minute first-half spell that also featured a prop getting sin-binned defending a maul at his try line was bruising.<\/p>\n

There was a second-half response, Connacht stealing lineouts on 53 and 63 minutes to prevent Glasgow setting up mauls near the line, and the scrum held its own. That showed they could temporarily fix things on the run, but too much damage had already been done.<\/p>\n

There was then further pain with Glasgow scoring their fourth maul try after Connacht decided not to contest the lineout. It was the final blow, and the accompanying irony was that Connacht then failed to profit when a man up later on as they collapsed their own maul when moving forward towards the line.<\/p>\n

Ex-Ireland coach\u2019s verdict on World Rugby\u2019s \u2018striking feature\u2019 problem after Leinster \u2018taken to the woodshed\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Lippy Aki blows up again<\/p>\n

You would think the public humiliation of copping a four-match ban<\/a> earlier this year for verbally abusing the match officials would result in Aki buttoning it on the pitch and keeping schtum no matter his perceived injustice. That punishment cost the midfielder his spot in the Ireland Six Nations squad, but Friday\u2019s evidence was that teaching the 36-year-old a lesson isn\u2019t an easy thing.<\/p>\n

Just minutes remained at Scotstoun with Connacht frantically trying to engineer the converted try that would have potentially earned their two bonus points \u2013 one for scoring four tries and another for losing by seven points. However, Welsh referee Ben Breakspear lost his patience with the Test-level veteran.<\/p>\n

With the Irish side trying to wrinkle some space to work the ball not far inside the Glasgow half, the official warned Aki and followed up at a breakdown with a caution that he would penalise him if he chatted to him again.<\/p>\n

Surely that was the prompt to zip it, but Aki continued his verbals and Breakspear whistled up to award a penalty to Glasgow rather than allow the play to continue with Hansen just having carried to a ruck about 10 metres inside the opposition half.<\/p>\n

That one shrill of the whistle ended Connacht\u2019s hopes of securing any reward from their travels, and some harsh words must be doled out to Aki in the changing room for his latest unprofessional incident.<\/p>\n

Brian O\u2019Driscoll reveals Ciaran Frawley \u2018request\u2019 which contradicts \u2018narrative\u2019 after high-profile Leinster exit<\/a><\/p>\n

Dad and lad<\/p>\n

Friday was Connacht boss Lancaster\u2019s 57th birthday, but it won\u2019t be fondly remembered by the ex-England coach as the celebration was ruined by his son Dan being on the winning Glasgow side.<\/p>\n

They had apparently not spoken to each other this week, and even a meet-up on Thursday for dinner was bereft of rugby chat, but what materialised the following night left the out-half son with all the bragging rights.<\/p>\n

So much of the hype in this fixture\u2019s lead-up had been about how new Connacht signing Ciaran Frawley<\/a> delivered to help the Irish team win last weekend in Italy, but he was eclipsed in Scotland by Lancaster Jnr and the Irishman\u2019s troubled outing was summed up by a terrible pass under pressure flying into touch in the dying minutes.<\/p>\n

That will hurt Frawley, especially as Lancaster didn\u2019t have much to do to outshine him on a night that was made for forwards \u2013 as seen in Glasgow\u2019s four maul tries. Despite the greasy conditions, the 25-year-old Scotland A international played a critical part in an early contender for try of the season.<\/p>\n

He had started the second half with a probing touch finder off his left foot, and he soon followed that with a peerless right-footed cross-kick into Dobie\u2019s breadbasket and the winger\u2019s grubber allowed McKay to go haring in for his score.<\/p>\n

So good was that combination that Lancaster\u2019s next involvement was softly knocking on the Connacht restart kick, resulting in the scrum that eventually led to an Irish try back, but that smudge really couldn\u2019t dilute the brilliance of the previous cross-kick.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Unwanted Glasgow hat-trick<\/p>\n

A Glasgow feature in the opening two rounds was their slow starts. They found themselves 0-10 down at Munster on September 26 before they managed to find an attacking pulse, and that annoyance was repeated last weekend when they hosted Ulster. Again, they conceded the opening try and were left trailing 0-7 and 7-12 before raising a proper gallop.<\/p>\n

Hopes for getting their lift-off right at the third time of asking against Connacht weren\u2019t helped by an initially shaky lineout, and their defence was forced to absorb a copious amount of pressure in the 22. This eventually resulted in them giving up the opening try, a converted effort from close range following cumulative infringements.<\/p>\n

Glasgow\u2019s response was swift, as they were scoring down the other end just three minutes later, but better teams than the trio of Irish sides they have started the season against will surely inflict costlier damage on Franco Smith\u2019s team if the coach doesn\u2019t come up with a ruse to shake up his slumbering starters.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All Blacks v Wallabies prediction: \u2018Battered\u2019 New Zealand to lose Eden Park record in Bledisloe Cup opener<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a deserved 36-19 win for Glasgow over Connacht in Friday night\u2019s URC fixture at Scotstoun, Planet Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[150872,32896,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-626545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-connacht","tag-editor","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}