The nature of the chastening encounter with Saracens which ended their last European campaign could have left scars as Glasgow Warriors set out in this season’s Champions Cup once again facing England’s current champions, but dwelling on such considerations would have been to waste time they do not have.
Under new head coach Dave Rennie they have made a perfect start to the season, in spite of having arguably the most demanding schedule of the Pro14 clubs, not least in having had to complete their first six rounds of domestic matches with a trip to South Africa at altitude that was fraught with difficulties because of the unavailability of Bloemfontein hotels. Now they face a shorter but, in competitive terms, even tougher trip to Exeter Chiefs following a relatively short turn-around looking for a much better outcome than that trip to meet Saracens in last year’s quarter-finals and hoping change might prove as good as rest.
“Look, it was pretty tough and more how things worked out,” Rennie acknowledged. “The night after the game we jumped in the bus and arrived in Jo’burg at 4.30 and most of the guys had stayed up the whole trip so in terms of recovery we were a bit behind. They slept pretty well in the plane and we got a fair bit of work done during the day and round the review and got a bit of clarity over what will be important this weekend.
“We gave them Monday off and a bit of recovery Tuesday so I think it was the right decision. We haven’t even talked about Saracens last year. There’s so many new players who weren’t part of that experience so it hasn’t been talked about at all. We focus more on what we’ve done over the last six weeks and what we have to do better and the fact the intensity will go up a couple of notches against an impressive Exeter side and we’re excited by that.”
Confronting what will certainly be the most attritional campaign of his coaching career Rennie is clearly relishing the change of pace, even if it means going up through the gears.
“In Super Rugby, you only play 17 or 18 games a year compared to these two comps you play a minimum of 27, but if our boys do well it’s another 10-12 games as well,” he noted. “The volume of games is a big difference. It’s a new experience for myself and guys like Callum Gibbins (whom he brought with him from the antipodes) but very exciting. We’ve prepared well and we’re looking forward to it.”
Historically the step up has proved beyond Glasgow who have book-ended more than 20 years of failures to get out of the European pools with a 90 point hammering in a quarter-final play-off match in their first campaign 20 years ago with last season’s 38 point thrashing in their first knockout match since.
In more recent years that has contrasted with their domestic form that has seen them win a Pro12 title and fail to reach the play-offs just twice since their introduction, but six straight wins this season make them the only team heading into the Champions Cup unbeaten, in turn influencing the way their prospects are viewed.
“We talked a lot about expectations at the start of our campaign,” said Rennie. “We are not here to make up the numbers. We know Exeter are an outstanding team as are Leinster and Montpellier. You have to have a positive mindset, set high goals and try to achieve them. So that’s what we have talked about so far in the PRO14 and nothing changes in this comp. It is exciting. We get to test ourselves against the best in Europe and Exeter are certainly one of those.”
As to the disparity in terms of spending power, Rennie acknowledged it but dismissed its significance.
“We’re well aware that it’s not necessarily a level playing field when it comes to salary caps and so on but you can use that as excuse or you just get on with it,” he said. “In the end there will be 15 v 15 and our guys are focused on performance rather than who’s getting what.”
Glasgow Warriors: Ruaridh Jackson; Tommy Seymour, Nick Grigg, Peter Horne, Lee Jones; Finn Russell, Ali Price; Jamie Bhatti, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, Ryan Wilson capt, Callum Gibbins, Adam Ashe. Replacements: George Turner, Alex Allan, D’Arcy Rae, Scott Cummings, Rob Harley, Henry Pyrgos, Sam Johnson, Niko Matawalu
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here