Tighten up or pay price, says Dave
Warriors came from behind to narrowly defeat Cardiff Blues
DAVE RENNIE has warned Glasgow Warriors they will pay the penalty unless they wise up on the basics.
The Scotstoun coach delivered his broadside after watching Warriors come from behind to claim their third straight Pro14 win of the season with a 20-19 away win over Cardiff Blues on Saturday.
Blues fly-half Steve Shingler had a late penalty in front of the posts to snatch a win, but having made all his kicks up to then he sent the last one wide to miss out on a notable scalp.
Tom James’ early try and Shingler’s boot had given Blues a good platform.
But Glasgow hit back with tries from Henry Pyrgos and Lee Jones, while Finn Russell missed none of his kicks.
Rennie, though, reckons Glasgow must up the ante in key areas to maintain their challenge for Pro14 silverware this season and avoid nervejangling finishes like he en- dured on Saturday.
He said: “We created a lot of opportunities but didn’t hang on to the ball long enough. Too many little kicks in behind that ended up giving away possession and relieving pressure.
“It was a tough night but we’re pleased to come out on the right side of it.”
The victory extends Glasgow’s unbeaten start in the Guinness PRO14 to three games, with all three wins coming against teams in Conference A.
Next up is Munster a Scotstoun, another team in Glasgow’s conference and Rennie is expecting improvement.
He said: “We’re always going to strive to be better. There’s no doubt that when we held on to the ball and went through a number of phases we put Cardiff under pressure.
“That was our mind-set, to try and play an up-tempo game but there were too many handling errors and possession turnovers relieving pressure.”
Warriors showed what they were capable of in flashes, their two tries demonstrating how dangerous they can be in attack and Rennie was pleased that his side were clinical when they needed to be.
He said: “One try was from a counter attack, we spend a lot of time on that part of our game and the guys did well to reload on the short side and were pretty clinical then.
“The other one was from a counter too, Finn (Russell) did well and so did Lee (Jones) to stay alive. We got a number of line breaks and were often one pass away but credit to Cardiff, they did well to keep us out.”
It was a disappointing finale for Cardiff who slumped to their third defeat on the bounce.
Blues coach Danny Wilson said: “It’s one of those things. I’m not going to be critical of Shings (Shingler), I think he kicked extremely well all night and unfortunately he’s missed that last one.
“All I can look back on is the performance and the application from our players, and I’m pleased with the execution of game plan and our effort.
“It’s a good Glasgow side full of internationals, especially in their backline, and we’re that close to nicking the win.”