O Scrum All Ye Faithful: Glasgow-Toulouse at Scotstoun

To some extent, attending live sport, whether you’re following a particular team or just an enthusiast attending whatever is available, can feel like chasing the highs of seeing extremely unlikely victories and triumphs over adversity. That pursuit is usually both fruitless and expensive. Sometimes, though, your persistence is rewarded with something truly spectacular. This happened to me on December 13^th at Glasgow’s Champions Cup group stage contest against Toulouse at Scotstoun.

Nobody in Glasgow had seen the sun all day. A wall of grey had enveloped the city since that morning and, in the build up to kick-off, the ceaseless clouds opened and rained down sheets of misery-inducing drizzle. A Warriors fan couldn’t have asked for conditions more favourable to the home side and more inhospitable to the visitors.

Toulouse dominate early

Still, it would be fair to say that the vast majority in attendance were expecting Toulouse to come away as winners. After all, their starting line-up featured a host of French internationals, foremost amongst them Antoine Dupont, and standout players from Italy, Scotland, and England. Indeed, the first half arguably went even worse than many of the Scotstoun faithful might have feared. If Dupont’s try in the seventh minute at least gave everyone the ability to say they’d seen one of the all-time greats score, the following two tries from Kalvin Gourgeus (the first of which is preceded by a forward pass from Dupont that an enraged crowd can only assume was allowed because of some sort of EPCR conspiracy to ensure Toulouse make it to the final) left Glasgow 21-0 at the interval and a quietened Scotstoun audience worrying just how bad this can possibly get.

Then, ten minutes into the second half, a ray of hope struggled through those unrelenting clouds. A well-worked set of phases led to Josh McKay absolving himself for a missed tackle that allowed one of the Gourgeus tries by running it in down the right-hand side and grounding the ball by the posts. At this stage, the Warriors faithful were just relieved to have something on the board to avoid total embarrassment.  But then, a little under eight minutes later, the spark ignited by Glasgow’s replacements turned into a blaze as another sustained attack on the goal line saw Gregor Brown go over right under the posts for a second score. The crowd was roaring at this stage and there was suddenly a palpable optimism about the place. Glasgow were starting to look indomitable. Another passage of pressure on the Toulouse goal line concluded with Sione Tuipulotu shrugging off defenders to burst over for Glasgow’s third try. As Adam Hastings’ conversion went over to level the scores at 21 apiece, Scotstoun erupts. It only got more rapturous from there as, using their signature move, Glasgow took the lead with a driving maul from a line out that battered through Toulouse’s defence from five metres with 70 minutes down.

Glasgow take the lead

When the touch judges’ flags confirmed Hastings has slotted the conversion, the cheering was on a scale I’ve never witnessed in a club game. Everyone, myself included, sheltering from the rain at the back of the North Stand was jumping for joy. I shouted so much that, at one point, I think I could taste blood in my mouth. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody could quite believe their eyes.

The final ten minutes were a stress-wracked eternity. Toulouse had a couple of promising attacks. Hastings’ attempt to seal the game with a drop goal saw the howling wind and pissing rain hurl the ball pretty much straight back to his feet. Toulouse had a scrum penalty with 45 seconds left, but it all came to an end when they were taken into touch a minute later with the clock in the red. Strangers hugged and clapped each other on the back. The man beside me had his arm round me and we shouted at each other about Christmas miracles. Wherever Glasgow go from here this season or beyond, we’ll always be able to say we were there. We saw one of the great comebacks in club rugby history and we experienced every ounce of despair, hope, stress, and elation that came with it.

This is why you do it. Why you wrap up in every item of warm or waterproof clothing you can find every winter. Why you endure the freezing conditions and the terrible food. Why you hang on to your season ticket even though the roof above your seat leaks… because sometimes, every once in a blue moon, you witness the impossible.

After the final whistle