When Glasgow Warriors defeated Dragons in Wales on Sunday by bonus points, Jack Mann’s man-of-the-match performance made him a strong candidate for a Scotland debut.
After two years of suffering from injuries, the 25-year-old is now a breakout player for the Warriors this season, earning a first-ever call-up to Gregor Townsend’s Six Nations squad. Despite missing the opening games against Italy and Ireland, he is still uncapped.
In addition to scoring one of his team’s seven tries, Mann’s strong ball carrying throughout the game helped the Warriors win 45–20, their seventh straight victory at Rodney Parade.
Glasgow head coach Franco Smith feels his number eight is now knocking firmly on the Scotland door as he prepares to rejoin his international colleagues for a training camp in Spain this week ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash against England at Twickenham on Saturday.
I think Jack wants to play in the Six Nations now,” Smith told Premier Sports. “He’s close, he’s in the group, he’s playing well.
I think everybody in the team today had some individual motivation. He specifically stepped up for us at the right time and proved he can play at the next level.”
Mann was one of five Glasgow players released from the Scotland squad for the URC fixture. Another, George Horne, registered two tries in an all-round display that is sure to have caught the eye of Townsend after missing out on the defeat to Ireland.
“He’s a good player, we know it,” Smith said of the scrum-half. “Between him and [Jamie] Dobie, and Ben White that’s currently playing [for Scotland], it’s hard to pick. Maybe it’s horses for courses at the moment. It means a lot for us when he comes in and performs like this when he’s in the mix for international selection as well.”
The other players who touched down for Glasgow were Duncan Weir, Nathan McBeth, Sebastian Cancelliere, and Johnny Matthews. Weir added five conversions. Lloyd Evans kicked two penalties and two conversions, while Shane Lewis-Hughes and James Benjamin scored the Dragons’ touchdowns.
Evans’ simple penalty kick in the second minute gave Dragons the lead, and Benjamin’s close-range collision extended their incredible start.
The visitors didn’t react until the second quarter, when Cancelliere dribbled a loose ball close to the hosts’ line, where replacement hooker Matthews was available to score.
Evans kicked a second penalty but the Warriors were becoming the dominant force and were first rewarded with a try from Mann, who touched down following a succession of forward drives, before Horne quickly added a third.
Dragons then suffered a double blow with scrum-half Dane Blacker yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on, but his illegal intervention was not enough to prevent Glasgow collecting their bonus-point try from Weir.
Despite Blacker’s absence, Dragons were able to stay in contention with a close-range try from Lewis-Hughes leaving the home side trailing 24-20 at the interval.
Two minutes after the restart, however, McBeth extended Glasgow’s lead before Horne showed his class to race past a bemused defence for an excellent individual effort.
The outstanding Horne was then replaced before former Wales centre Scott Williams was introduced for a Dragons debut, but it made no difference as a late try from Cancelliere emphasised the Scottish team’s superiority.
