Kenny insists Glasgow side have depth to impress again
GLASGOW Warriors assistant coach Kenny Murray has told the club’s supporters not to panic after last week’s thrashing at the hands of Northampton Saints.
After a largely secondstring side had run up a half century of points against Harlequins in Perth the previous weekend, the scale of that 41-15 defeat to the Saints for what looked a much stronger side came as a considerable shock.
That has led in turn to questions being asked on social media channels about the lack of recruitment over the summer, however with playmaker Peter Horne and lock Jonny Gray among those set to be available this weekend, while another of their most experienced internationalists, hooker Fraser Brown, is also doing contact work in training once more, Murray reckoned the nature of that loss could prove timely.
“It was obviously a disappointing result, but we’d have been a bit more cautious going into this game against Connacht if we’d won both [pre-season] games really easily, so we’ll take the learning from it this week,” he said.
“In the second half against Harlequins they didn’t challenge us too much. When we got a few tries near the end they capitulated a little a bit. We probably didn’t have our defence tested enough and then Northampton proved a step up.”
He also insisted that, in spite of the perceived lack of activity in a transfer window which saw international halfbacks Finn Russell and Henry Pyrgos leave the club, they have a strong enough squad to cope with the challenges that lie ahead.
“People forget that last year we had to re-sign a lot of players,” he pointed out.
“Those were not young players coming through, it’s international British and Irish Lion type players we’re talking.
“So we kept a lot of players on last year and have got a strong squad. This year was more about topping it up a little bit.
“Henry [Pyrgos] going to Edinburgh meant we had a space to bring in another nine for the international windows. I think [Nick] Frisby has been good in the first two games, so we’re comfortable with the squad.”
A benefit of knowing the squad as well as the coaches now do is that, albeit with contingencies for injury and dips in form, they have alreaday been able to sketch out their prospective starting teams and squads for the first six matches of the season, while Murray also suggested