Wilson says Glasgow will still play prettily in bid to win ugly
GLASGOW Warriors have recognised the need to generate more power, but there will be no major change to the energy they bring in seeking to play high-octane rugby in the coming season according to their captain Ryan Wilson.
While Glasgow’s biggest problem last season was that they struggled badly when the more powerful teams in Europe and the PRO14 imposed themselves physically in matches, the Scotland back-row forward, who will formally share the leadership duties with New Zealander Callum Gibbins this season, indicated that their over-arching philosophy is unchanged.
“Every team needs those big ball carriers [but] we pride ourselves on footwork and getting in behind the defence,” he said.
“We are a team that wants to play quick rugby and we need to be the fittest team for that and if you are a 125kg backrow then you are going to struggle.
“We brought Tevita [US international lock Dave Tameilau] in so he looks handy, he is a skilful player, they just need to get him up to speed with things, so he will offer something there. Again, Bruce Flockhart at the weekend, a big powerful ball carrier/No.8, he is another player we can bring in.
“I’ll back myself if the boss asks me to carry but we have a certain way we want to play and we have said we need to go up front a little bit more and you probably saw a little bit of that in the game against Harlequins, we took it in the forwards a little bit more and earned the space to go wide but, yeah, we can handle that.”
It was Glasgow who were doing the bullying up front against English opposition on Saturday and while it would be dangerous to read too much into that, given how poorly Harlequins performed in their Premiership last season, Wilson was delighted with the way the club’s youngsters performed.
“You saw how the boys went out and played, 10 to 15 minutes to find their feet and then we just went out there and played footy, as they say,” he said.
“Some of the young guys stepped up and played really well. Adam Hastings had only played 15 or 20 minutes but he was outstanding. It showed how fit we are at the moment as well.”