A George Horne hattrick amidst a six-try first half blitz helped condemn Sale to a 38-19 defeat to Glasgow Warriors in their Champions Cup opener.
It was an unenviable task travelling up to Scotstoun to face the URC champions on a blustery Saturday evening, with no less than seven Scotland internationals returning to the host’s 23.
George Horne was one of those returnees, and ran in a first half hattrick, despite spending ten minutes of it in the sin bin. Other Scotland internationals Kyle Rowe, Huw Jones, and Scott Cummings also found themselves on the scoresheet for Glasgow.
Sharks’ own Scottish international Arron Reed scored in the first half before Joe Carpenter’s solo effort in the second, but Alex Sanderson’s side were constantly frustrated by tries conceded soon after scoring throughout.
Horne’s hattrick bookended the half, the first coming after just two and a half minutes when he finished a nice passage of offloading.
His second followed ten minutes later when a loose ball found him in open space on the right flank, and he deftly grubbered down the touchline to avoid covering defence to score.
Glasgow then surged into a 19-0 lead when Rowe finished off a lovely transition move, the ball worked wide off the first phase of a turnover despite Sale’s rush defence.
Resorting to the nuts and bolts to get a foothold back in the game, Sale were able to get their first score from the maul, Horne going to the sin bin for collapsing to concede the penalty try. However, the Warriors’ bonus point try followed quickly after, Huw Jones benefitting from Sale’s struggles to exit into the wind.
Arron Reed was able to peg another back shortly after, the Scottish international walking one in after a rampant passage of phases following a scything Bevan Rodd linebreak, but Horne’s hattrick closed out the half when he finished his own walk in from a Jamie Bhatti break.
With the deficit 21 points a fast start was required but Sale were made to wait until the hour mark before they could open the second half’s scoring. Something special was needed to breach a strong Warriors defence but Joe Carpenter managed to when a lasered Raffi Quirke pass opened some space for him, a big hand off and some clever work on the floor allowing him to run in.
However, the game’s frustrating pattern of a Sharks try quickly followed by a Warriors one continued as Scott Cummings capitalised on a Johnny Matthews break to dot down.
