{"id":419470,"date":"2025-09-12T21:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/419470\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T21:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:47:13","slug":"match-report-glasgow-warriors-40-31-northampton-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/419470\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Report | Glasgow Warriors 40-31 Northampton Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northampton Saints were defeated for the first time in the 2025\/26 campaign, as the men in Black, Green and Gold fell to Glasgow Warriors 40-31 at Scotstoun Stadium.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Phil Dowson<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s side started their final preseason clash brightly sending\u00a0back-row duo Callum Chick<\/strong><\/a> and Tom Pearson<\/strong><\/a> over early doors, but\u00a0a second for Pearson and a first score of the term for George Hendy<\/strong><\/a> were sandwiched by four tries from the hosts and it was Glasgow who entered the break with a narrow two-point lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saints shot back in front after the turnaround and sent\u00a0Hendy over again after just two minutes, but that lead was short-lived and Warriors would add two more scores to their tally before the final whistle handed them the 40-31 victory.<\/p>\n

FIRST HALF:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0a\u00a0couple of early handling errors, the Saints pack were able to convert the resulting scrums into penalties against the head and it was just a matter of time before No. 8 Callum Chick crashed through to open both his account in a Saints shirt and the scoring for the evening.<\/p>\n

A second close-range effort \u2013 this time from flanker\u00a0Pearson \u2013 again owed much to a set-piece shove and a quickly taken penalty.<\/p>\n

Anthony Belleau<\/strong><\/a> converted both tries to take Saints 0\u201314 to the good, but after a quick break up the left, Warriors recycled well for Dan Lancaster to hit back almost immediately and stem the one-way traffic.<\/p>\n

It was only a temporary reprieve, however. When the ball bobbled free in midfield, Archie McParland<\/strong><\/a> reacted quickest and his dart into the 22 was eventually finished off by Pearson again, the flanker taking multiple defenders over the line with him for good measure.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard kept ticking for both sides, Warriors bagging a second when dangerman Fergus Watson \u2013 instrumental in their first score \u2013 broke free again and put Jack Oliver in for the hosts\u2019 second.<\/p>\n

Next over the whitewash was the returning Hendy, marking his first minutes in Saints colours since April with a simple dive over in the corner, but again Warriors replied, driving Gregor Hiddleston over from a maul.<\/p>\n

Lancaster\u2019s second success from the tee trimmed Saints\u2019 lead to five and when Hiddleston burrowed through, Glasgow led for the first time with just 90 seconds left on the first-half clock, a 26-24 advantage they would take to\u00a0the\u00a0sheds.<\/p>\n

SECOND HALF:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having finished the opening 40 on the back foot, Saints returned fired up and Edoardo Todaro<\/strong><\/a> raced clear through midfield. Hendy again hugged the right touchline and while his path was this time blocked by a defender, the fullback blasted over to double his tally and regain the lead.<\/p>\n

As had been the case in the first half, the score prompted a response from Glasgow. Though Saints held strong for the best part of 20 minutes, the pressure forced a yellow card for Luke Green<\/strong><\/a> and Johnny Matthews pounced from a lineout drive, Lancaster finding the mark with the extras.<\/p>\n

This time, Warriors would not relinquish their lead, instead adding to it seven minutes from time through Josh McKay, who collected Oliver\u2019s inside pass to coast behind the posts.<\/p>\n

The final whistle wrapped up Saints\u2019 preseason encounters, with the men in Black, Green and Gold now turning their attentions to the PREM Rugby Cup and the challenge of a trip to Saracens in a weeks\u2019 time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LINE-UPS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warriors:\u00a0<\/strong>15 McKay,\u00a014 Watson,\u00a013 Johnston,\u00a012 Yule,\u00a011 Smith,\u00a010 Lancaster,\u00a09 Afshar;\u00a01 McBeth, 2 Hiddleston, 3 Richardson, 4 Williamson, 5 Samuel, 6 Ferrie (C), 7 Duncan, 8 Dempsey.
Replacements: Matthews, Shearer, Talakai, Oguntibeju, Brown, Fraser, Oliver, Urwin, Salmon, Ventisei, Bhatti, Stephen, Cockburn, Jackson, Bryden.<\/p>\n

Saints: <\/strong>15 Ramm (c), 14 Todaro, 13 Hutchinson, 12 Thame, 11 Caqusau, 10 Belleau, 9 McParland; 1 Iyogun, 2 Wright, 3 Kundiona, 4 Prowse, 5 Lockett, 6 Pearson, 7 Graham, 8 Chick.
Replacements: Walker, Fischetti, Millar Mills , Scola, Green, Munga, Scott-Young, Benson, Brown, Weimann, Pater, Martin, Litchfield, Rowe, Hendy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton Saints were defeated for the first time in the 2025\/26 campaign, as the men in Black, Green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-419470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115193527940606510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}