Glasgow brush past Aironi

Aironi's winless start to life in the Magners League continued as they slumped to a 33-8 defeat in Glasgow.

Glasgow captain Al Kellock was making his first appearance of the season after undergoing knee surgery in the summer, and played his part in a performance in which the pressure and territory Glasgow enjoyed should have seen them pick up more than four tries.

Glasgow started fast, pressurising the Aironi line before switching the ball wide for Federico Aramburu to shrug off a couple of tackles and grab the opening try.

Duncan Weir converted, and although Aironi set up a promising attack deep in the Glasgow half, Weir made a 60-metre clearance to put his side back on the front foot.

The home scrum made a steal and number eight Ryan Wilson set up the penalty for Weir to kick from 40 metres.

Aironi's Jaco Erasmus and Andrea Benatti pinched a couple of turnovers as Ludovic Mercier took the chance to get the visitors on the board with a simple penalty.

Scrum-half Henry Pyrgos proved a thorn in Aironi's side with a couple of kicks which tested the back three, and then his pass put Colin Shaw away on a 50-metre run which saw him halted ony inches short.

Weir booted his second penalty, and then a couple of minutes later quick- thinking by Ryan Wilson with a tap penalty put Aramburu over for his second try. Weir converted and Glasgow went in 20-3 ahead at the interval.

Weir started the second half where he had finished off in the first, landing a penalty three minutes in.

But it took 20 more minutes before Glasgow could wear down the Italian defence and it took a huge effort by the home pack to put DTH van der Merwe over in the corner.

Aironi hooker Luigi Ferraro scored a well-deserved consolation try with 11 minutes remaining, but that fired Glasgow up again and from the final play of the game Peter Murchie went over in the corner to secure a bonus point.

The scorers:

For Glasgow:
Tries: Aramburu 2, Murchie, van der Merwe
Cons: Weir 2
Pens: Weir 3

For Aironi:
Try: Ferraro
Pen: Mercier

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Colin Shaw, 13 Federico Aramburu, 12 Rob Dewey, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Calum Forrester, 6 Robert Harley, 5 Alastair Kellock (c) 4 Tom Ryder, 3 Ed Kalman, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Moray Low, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Colin Gregor, 22 Peter Murchie, 23 Hefin O'Hare

Aironi: 15 Julien Laharrague, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Gilberto Pavan, 12 Gabriel Pizarro, 11 Rodd Penney, 10 Ludovic Mercier, 9 Giulio Toniolatti, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Andrea Benatti, 6 Jaco Erasmus, 5 Joshua Furno, 4 Marco Bortolami (c), 3 Luca Redolfini, 2 Luigi Ferraro, 1 Andrea De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Roberto Santamaria, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Alberto De Marchi, 19 Vickus Liebenberg, 20 Aldo Birchall, 21 Pablo Canavosio, 22 Giulio Rubini, 23 Alberto Benettin.

Referee: Simon Mcdowell (Ireland)