European Champions Cup: DTH Van Der Merwe helps Glasgow beat Montpellier 21-10
Last Updated: 18/01/15 7:47pm
DTH Van Der Merwe ran in a hat-trick of tries as Glasgow Warriors cemented second place in European Champions Cup Pool Four by overpowering Montpellier 21-10 at Scotstoun Stadium.
The Canada wing finished clinically on three occasions amid some ordinary Montpellier defending to ensure victory, although Warriors coach Gregor Townsend may be concerned at his side's inability to turn a dominant territorial display into a more emphatic scoreline.
Montpellier began the brighter, quickly moving in front through the boot of Ben Lucas and it took a controversial score from Van der Merwe to kick-start Glasgow's afternoon.
Alex Dunbar showed a flash of imagination to pierce the drifting midfield defence and offload to the wing, but the pass looked suspiciously forward before Van Der Merwe scampered down the line and touched down.
Finn Russell added the conversion but the visitors were quick to hit back – Montpellier captain Thibaut Privat opting to go for the corner with a penalty, collecting the resulting line-out and marshalling a rolling maul that allowed him to crash over with the home defence all at sea.
A spell of Glasgow pressure followed and Montpellier saw Pat Cilliers sin-binned for killing the ball but several attempts to find a second try rather than opt to kick penalties saw them fail to capitalise and they headed into the break 10-7 down.
The momentum stayed with the Scottish side into the second half and in the 57th minute they were finally able to convert their superiority into points – Lucas too easily shrugged off by Van Der Merwe, who then coasted in unopposed for his and Glasgow's second try.
Play quickly returned to Montpellier's 22 after the restart and with 12 minutes left, Van Der Merwe completed a memorable day with a third – Warriors gaining momentum from a jinking Russell run and Van Der Merwe spinning away from another poor tackle to complete the hat-trick.
The visitors were not helped by a harsh yellow card for centre Lucas Dupont, who timed his sprint out of the line to perfection only to be ruled offside and sent to the sin bin.
There was less pleasing news for Glasgow in the form of an injury to nfluential No 8 Josh Strauss, who was stretchered off with 15 minutes remaining with what appeared to be a knee injury, but Townsend's men had the game well sewn up by then.
