Danny Wilson urges Glasgow Warriors fans to stick with team despite poor run

A run of four away defeats on the bounce has seen Warriors tumble from third in the United Rugby Championship table in mid-April to eighth after last weekend’s listless and demoralising loss to Edinburgh in the final match of the regular campaign, and the Scotstoun outfit were also dumped out of the European Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage by Lyon at the start of this month.  

However, Wilson – who has a year to run on his current contract – insists that the team has progressed under his stewardship during the last two seasons, and he pleaded for patience as he assembles a squad which he believes can be competitive in both the URC and Europe. 

“I understand that social media will respond to a derby loss when so much was on the game, and I take responsibility as head coach after a game which both the fans and we as a squad are all very disappointed to lose,” he said. “But I also look at the fact that for 80 percent of this season we have made some big strides and were in a really good position in the URC.  

“The league is becoming tougher and tougher with the South African sides in it, and we’ve been top four the majority of the year.  

“The only two sides that have beaten us at home are the two sides that contested the European Cup Final [Leinster and La Rochelle] this weekend, so our home record has been outstanding this year.  

“Where we need to improve is, obviously, getting games done on the road, because we are performing well in parts of games away from home but we’re not consistently enough winning those matches.  

“We’ve had some good wins on the road – like Newcastle and Connacht in bad conditions – but we just haven’t had enough of them.” 

Wilson recently revealed that a couple more signings will be announced before the start of next season, with the club having already announced the recruitment of Huw Jones, JP du Preez, Sione Vailanu and Sintu Manjezi. Meanwhile, talented Scottish youngsters Alex Samuel, Max Williamson, Gregor Brown and Angus Fraser are being promoted from the academy tis summer. 

“I think we’ve seen the likes of Jack Dempsey, Sione Tuipulotu and Josh McKay come in and add value this year, as well as Rory Darge in his first full season with us,” the coach added.

“Then you’ve got Murphy Walker and some of the younger guys starting to come through, and we’ve got another crop of recruitment done. 

“Ollie Smith is someone else who has established himself this year, so I think there are a lot of positives and we’re moving in the right direction.  

“I think if you look at the season as a whole, the players who have come through, our recruitment, our home record, making two quarter-finals, there is positive evidence of steps forward from last season.  

“It’s a stepping-stone effect – you do it over a period and I think our squad is going to be stronger next year.” 

Despite their recent plummet down the league table, Glasgow did manage to snatch that last place in the URC play-offs, which means they have an opportunity to finish the campaign on a positive note if they can secure a surprise win against Leinster in Dublin next Saturday. 

Wilson agreed that the match against the league’s most dominant side is a 'free hit' but stressed that this does not mean Glasgow can throw caution to the wind, because against a team of Leinster’s calibre that will likely end in humiliation. 

“They are a very, very dangerous team,” he said.” You can’t just go there and throw the ball around. You have to go there full-blooded, throw everything at them physically and play it tactically. 

“We go there as big underdogs but it’s an opportunity to cause a shock, and we’ve done it before – at the end of last season – so there’s no reason we can’t do it again. 

“The boys have trained well this week and I know they’ll be keen to show that at the weekend after we didn’t perhaps show it against Edinburgh.”