“This is still a young group in general, but I thought they showed real maturity at times and with the ball players and pace we have out wide, the forwards know that if they can get them good possession then we are likely to create opportunities.

“It is only one win and we are not getting carried away, but the girls deserve to enjoy this and we can now take confidence into the next game.”

Next Saturday Glasgow will be at Hive Stadium to take on Edinburgh who will be looking to bounce back after being beaten comfortably by six tries to one at Energia Park in Dublin (although that is a huge improvement on the 102-0 thumping they suffered against the same opposition in the last game of last season’s Celtic Challenge).

Edinburgh head coach Claire Cruikshank said: “It was always going to be tough coming across here to Ireland, we knew that, but I think the way we stuck in defensively in some pretty horrible conditions was brilliant. I’m super proud of the effort the girls put in.

“We got ourselves right back into things at 17-7 at half-time, but then the weather turned in the second half and the wind and rain picked up and we just couldn’t get out of our half because of the conditions.

“You can train all you want, but it’s really hard to know where you are until you get on the pitch against a proper opposition and although we lost I’m super proud of lots of things we did in the game. It gives us somewhere to start from and build from.”

In the other round one game, Clovers beat Gwalia Lightning 35-31 in Dublin.

ELLIE TROMANS got the game off to a great start for Brython Thunder when the centre went in under the posts for a try converted by stand-off Hanna Marshall after just six minutes.

Glasgow fought back though and winger Sky Phimister carried on where she had left off last week. Seven days previously she scored four tries to help Stirling County win the Arnold Clark Women’s Premiership Grand Final and here she scored two tries with scrum-half Rianna Darroch converting one of them.

Brython levelled things up when Marshall’s quick tap penalty caught the Glasgow defence napping and the five-pointer she scored made it 12-12 at the break.

The home side started the second period quite well, but by the 55th minute they had not made their territory count and Glasgow made them pay.

Firstly, a neat backs move saw full-back Poppy Mellanby put winger Hannah Smyth in at the corner. That was in the 57th minute and, a couple of minutes later, Smyth took advantage of loose play by Brython to streak away from distance and impressive pace got her over for her second try. Smyth is the sister of former Scotland Men under-20 cap Callum Smyth and is linked to Hartpury and Gloucester-Hartpury.

Neither of those triies were converted and, in the 64th minute, 22-12 became 22-17 when Thunder scored their third try via captain Jess Rogers. The conversion hit the upright and it was 22-17 and tight heading into the closing stages.

With 12 minutes remaining, Glasgow’s fifth try came when good patience eventually saw centre Nicole Flynn – later named player-of-the-match – flipping a lovely pass out of the tackle to Mellanby who scored. Darroch converted and it was 29-17.

The icing on the cake then came with the clock in the red when good breaks by replacement Katie Lindsay and co-captain Holland Bogan put sub Ailsa Merryweather in under the posts with co-captain Ceitidh Ainsworth converting to spark celebrations.

 

Teams –

Brython Thunder: M Wilkinson; A Tutt, E Tromans, G Healen, S Singleton; H Marshall, F Lewis; S Orrin, S Williams, E Jones, R Davies, N John, C Jones, J Rogers, B Metcalfe. Subs: A Morgan, M Lewis, R James, M-H Bowen, F Jones, S Lockwood, F Williams, M Webb.

Glasgow Warriors: P Mellanby; S Phimister, N Flynn, B McNamara, H Smyth; C Ainsworth co-©, R Darroch; F Gracie, M Hyland, I Spence, H Bogan co-©, G Thomson, Taganekurukuru, G Bell, E Coubrough. Subs: A Sutcliffe, I Gillan, K Lindsay, A Merryweather, F Walker, R Douglas, C McLaren, E Norval.

Referee: Jess Kavanagh

 

Scorers –

Brython Thunder: Tries: Tromans, Marshall, Rogers. Con: Marshall.

Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Phimister 2, Smyth 2, Mellanby, Merryweather. Cons: Darroch 2, Ainsworth.

Scoring sequence (Brython Thunder first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-5; 7-10; 7-12; 12-12 (h-t) 12-17; 12-22; 17-22; 17-27; 17-29; 17-34; 17-36.

 

WOLFHOUNDS dominated the first 20 minutes in Dublin and, as a result, they were 17-0 up after a quarter of the game had gone and that deficit was always going to be tricky for Edinburgh to hunt down.

The first try came after just three minutes for the home side when tight-head Sophie Barrett spun out of a tackle and managed to just get the ball over the line. Stand-off Dannah O’Brien converted and it was 7-0.

Five minutes later, try number two arrived via hooker India Daley from a line-out drive and when winger Maggie Boyland added a five-pointer of her own 12 minutes later it was 17-0.

Edinburgh started to come into things a bit after that opening salvo with the likes of second-row Natasha Logan and back-row Alex Stewart winning crucial turnovers to get their team going.

And, six minutes before the interval, they got on the scoresheet and closed the gap to 10 points when back-row Cat Moody went over from short range and centre Lucy MacRae converted.

That try might have spurred Edinburgh on to get off to a quick start to the second period, but instead it was the home side who cranked things up a notch.

In the 45th minute, Barrett powered over for her second try converted by O’Brien and then, three minutes later, centre Eve Higgins took a quick tap and scorched down the right to score a five-pointer.

To make matters worse for Edinburgh with the score at 29-7 they also lost full-back Scarlett Haddow to the sin bin after a clash in an attempted tackle on Higgins in the lead up to that score.

There was no more scoring until sub front-rower Linda Djougang went over for Wolfhounds in the dying seconds with their full-back Robyn O’Connor named player-of-the-match.

 

Teams –

Wolfhounds: R O’Connor; V Elmes Kinlan, A Dalton ©; E Higgins, M Boylan; D O’Brien, A Reilly; C McLean, I Oakley, S Barrett, N Smyth, K Jordan, P Garvey, MO O’Leary, C Boles. Subs: M Clenaghan, C Molloy, L Djougang, C Ni Chonchobhair, A Corcoran, J Gaffney, A Larn, S Flood.

Edinburgh Rugby: S Haddow; C Bell, R Philipps, L MacRae, H Walker ©; H Ramsay, E Love; T Tawake, A Ronald, F Sutherland, A Ferrie, N Logan, C Moody, A Stewart, M Gunderson. Subs: M Whitehouse, A Wilson, H McMahon, C Russell, L McGrotty, P Benson, N Marlow, L Brown.

Referee: Jess Kavanagh

 

Scorers –

Wolfhounds: Tries: Barrett 2, Daley, Boylan, Higgins, Djougang. Cons: O’Brien 2.

Edinburgh Rugby: Try: Moody. Con: MacRae.

Scoring sequence (Wolfhounds first): 5-0; 7-0; 12-0; 17-0; 17-5; 17-7 (h-t) 22-7; 24-7; 29-7; 34-7.

 

Yellow card –

Edinburgh Rugby: Haddow (48 mins)

 

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