Five-try Lightning storm to away victory over Warriors

BBC | 10.01.2026 22:26

Celtic Challenge round three

Glasgow Warriors (5) 19

Tries: Phimister, Walker, Bell

Gwalia Lightning (7) 38

Tries: Vucaj, Reardon, Greenway 3

Gwalia Lightning delivered a thrilling second-half performance to beat Glasgow Warriors 38-19 and make it back-to-back wins in the Celtic Challenge.

A late hat-trick from the impressive Courtney Greenway was the highlight of an end-to-end second-half.

After a nervy start by both teams it took 15 minutes for Glasgow to open the scoring at Scotstoun Stadium.

It was a fast transition from defence to attack that gave Glasgow the lead as Briar McNamara handed off to Sky Phimister who breezed past two defenders and went over for Warriors' first points.

The game then opened up as both teams had chances to score but it was the Welsh side who hit back in the 29th minute.

Glasgow switched off after a penalty and a quick restart by Sian Jones caught the hosts off guard as Tilly Vucaj went over, with Carys Hughes coverting to give Gwalia a 7-5 lead going into the break.

The game blew wide-open in the second-half when Freya Walker split the visitors defence and gave Glasgow the lead in the 45th minute.

Gwalia hit back six minutes later when Molly Reardon went over to make it 12-12.

The back-and-forth continued as Glasgow took the lead in the the 55th minute through Gemma Bell. Gwalia responded once more in the 58th minute when Greenway capitalised on a knock-on to sprint over.

Greenway then took the game into her own hands to score back-to-back tries and propel her side onto a spirited victory.

Glasgow Warriors: Sutcliffe, Hyland, Spence, Bogan (c), Walker, Thomson, Bell, Coubrough, Darroch, Ainsworth (c), Allan, McNamara, Flynn, Phimister, Mellanby

Replacements: Simpson, Gracie, Lindsay, Murphy, MacGilvray, Douglas, Blacklock, Smyth

Gwalia Lightning: Richards, Greenway, Webster, Thomas, Prothero; C Hughes, S Jones; M Davies, Reardon, Hill, Pyrs, Vucaj, E Jones, Owen, King (capt).

Replacements: Crabb, Cuming, Scoble, Terry, Pearce, Bevans, McMullen, C Lewis