Glasgow Warriors clinch historic URC Grand Final title as thrilling comeback sees off Blue Bulls

Glasgow were tonight celebrating the greatest win in their history after they fought back from 13-0 down to beat the Bulls in the URC Grand Final.

It is the Warriors’ first trophy since they won the old PRO12 back in 2015 when Gregor Townsend was head coach. That game has gone down in history, but it is eclipsed by this one. The Bulls were the favourites for the game, played at altitude on their home ground at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The Warriors had little time to prepare after flying to South Africa - but somehow they finished the stronger side.

It was only six weeks since the two teams had last met at the same ground. That was in the regular season, when the Bulls raced into a 37-10 lead before a late comeback by the Warriors ended with them snatching two bonus points in a 40-34 loss. Everyone in the Scots squad reckoned they could not afford to give their hosts such a big lead again. It did not get anything like that bad, right enough, but the first 39 minutes and more went very much against them.

It took the Bulls barely 90 seconds to open the scoring. Jack Dempsey was penalised for not releasing, and Johan Goosen coolly knocked over the penalty from out wide.

The Warriors attack began to come into its own a little after that, but their first real offensive was ended when a kick through by Huw Jones was cleared by Bulls winger Kurt-Lee Arendse. Then, with quarter of an hour on the clock, Jamie Bhatti was penalised right in front of his own posts - like Dempsey, for not rolling away. Goosen made no mistake and it was 6-0.

Midway through the half, the Bulls thought they had scored a try to add to the two penalties as Wilco Louw drove over the line. But Rory Darge got underneath him, and the referee ruled there