Glasgow Warriors marched on into the last 16 of the Champions Cup following a clean sweep of four wins from four in a pool-stage procession. Flawless and fearless, they are now firmly among the favourites to go all the way.
Franco Smith’s side can no longer be viewed as dark horses when it comes to potential winners of this competition. Not in this form. Not when they have beaten a succession of European heavyweights over the past month.
On a raucous night at Scotstoun, Saracens joined the list of those vanquished by Warriors over the past month, alongside Toulouse, Clermont and Sale Sharks.
This was a performance laced with pace, power and precision, and Glasgow are playing as well as anyone right now. The defence? Mighty when called upon.
The fact they have also secured a top-two seeding means Smith’s men will enjoy home advantage all the way to the semi-finals. Another huge factor in their favour.
No one will fancy coming to Scotstoun. Sarries were swatted aside as an irrelevance, though they still squeak through to the last 16 despite the defeat.
George Horne scores Glasgow’s third try in their Champions Cup victory against Saracens
Ollie Smith darts through a gap to give Glasgow the lead on a raucous night at Scotstoun
Kyle Steyn makes a break during a win that showed Warriors’ potential to win the competition
Any inferiority complex Glasgow once suffered in these matches is gone. Under Smith, there is a growing belief and expectation in this competition.
Jack Dempsey was magnificent. George Horne, too. Glasgow blew Sarries away in a dominant first half that saw them score three tries. It was all so easy.
They added a fourth late in the second half, putting the seal on what had been an outstanding night’s work. They will now play the Bulls in the first phase of the knockouts.
Saracens, three-time winners of this competition, fielded a team loaded with experience, including the likes of Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell, Jamie George and Elliot Daly. They were never at the races, however.
The current format of the Champions Cup is not without its critics and it certainly has the capacity to throw up a multitude of mind-mangling permutations.
The equation was simple for the Warriors, though. They came into the match in confident mood after winning away at Clermont last weekend, a result which had already booked their place in the knockouts.
There was now only one thing left to do. In their quest to secure a top-two seeding with a win, the Warriors came flying out of the traps and took the lead after only 10 minutes.
An increasingly impressive figure in the second row, Alex Craig made a good break initially. Glasgow worked the ball nicely to Ollie Smith and he darted through a gap to score.
Horne slotted the conversion, before a penalty from Farrell notched the visitors’ first points of the afternoon to make it 7-3.
Glasgow were winning the contact area. Dempsey broke through a series of tackles to thunder over the gain-line on a couple of occasions, a clear sign of the home side’s physicality.
Sarries were holding on. When Glasgow twice won penalties and kicked to the corner, Itoje and Co had to summon all their grit and steel to repel the assault on their try line from close range.
But the Warriors stretched their lead just before the half-hour. Horne fed Kyle Steyn, who had come charging through on a great line to score underneath the posts.
On his 150th appearance, Horne then scampered away to score the third try, profiting from another great break and pass from the outstanding Dempsey. The conversion made it 21-3.
The Scotstoun crowd were almost in disbelief. Few could have envisaged that this would be so straightforward, so easy, against a team who used to knock them black and blue in Europe.
It was turning into a blowout. Sarries were reduced to 14 men when Juan Martin Gonzalez was sin-binned. The punishment from Glasgow during that period was ruthless.
Led by Scotland’s Fergus Burke at fly-half, Saracens couldn’t find any fluency in attack. They were being outmuscled up front and ripped apart all too easily in defence.
The only bright spark for the English side was Rotimi Segun, who looked lively on the left wing and made a few decent breaks. All too often, he was a one-man band.
There was a big moment right at the end of the first half when Sarries finally built a period of sustained pressure in the Glasgow 22, only to eventually knock the ball on. Big chance gone.
Glasgow lost a man early in the second half when full-back Kyle Rowe was adjudged to have caught Segun with a high tackle.
Sarries enjoyed another period of possession deep in the Glasgow 22, but it amounted to nothing. Loads of huff and puff from the Premiership giants, no cutting edge.
Tellingly, they failed to make any inroads on the scoreboard in the ten-minute period where they held a numerical advantage with Rowe off the field. Their discipline at the breakdown was especially poor.
It looked like the second half might fizzle out without any further scoring, only for the Warriors to give their fans a finish to cheer right at the death.
Replacement hooker Seb Stephen went over to ensure Glasgow took the bonus-point win. An almighty roar went around the stadium.
What Glasgow have produced in Europe over the past month or so has not been some kind of flash in the pan.
It has been the positive affirmation of a team who now look like they could go all the way in this land of European giants.
