Rennie relishing chance to test out Tameilau against Ospreys

DAVE Rennie hopes to unleash Tevita Tameilau, Glasgow Warriors’ answer to Edinburgh’s player of the season Bill Mata, tonight as his side look to rebound from their last ditch defeat last weekend.

The Warriors head coach admitted to seeing similar qualities in the American No.8 to the Fijian who has brought an extra dimension to Edinburgh’s play and is relishing the chance to see him in action against the Ospreys tonight.

“He’s a strong ball carrier, a destructive defender and he has really good skills... he’s got lovely hands, so he’s something a little bit said Rennie.

“That’s what excited us about him and our focus has been getting him into the sort of condition to play the type of game we like to play. To his credit he’s worked really hard and put in some really good shifts so he’s ready to go.”

The coach also gave his full backing to another of his imports, former Australian international scrum-half Nick Frisby, who had a difficult time on his last start as the Warriors were shocked by the PRO14’s worst team, the Southern Kings.

“There weren’t too many people who played that well against the Kings, clearly, but he’s trained really well,” said Rennie. different,”

“He didn’t get a run last week, mainly because George Horne was going so well and the state of the game etc, but we’ve got a lot of confidence in Nick, he’s a really good player and has been an international half-back. He’s fit as, he’s got a really good workrate and he’s keen as to get out there. We’re lucky. We’ve got good depth in that position and we expect him to go well.”

They come into a team that is deprived of no fewer than 14 players who are on international duty with Scotland as they head to one of their main Conference rivals, but Rennie is not interested in such excuses.

“Look, part of our role here is for Scottish rugby,” he insisted.

“We want as many players as possible playing international footie, so it’s great from a club point of view and it always gives an opportunity for others to put them under a bit of pressure, so we’re happy we have a good team on the park.” The timing of the fixture seems particularly unfortunate given the likelihood that the two teams will be in contention to top the Conference at the end of the season, but Rennie put that down to the luck of the draw. “You’ve got to play someone don’t you and I’m not sure how the draw’s done, but obviously with Scotland and Wales having an additional game it’s going to have a bit of impact,” he said. “Generally the Scottish and Italian sides are hurt most because you’ve got two sides providing the national team, while Wales and Ireland are not hurt quite as much with four sides, but we haven’t talked at any stage this week about who’s missing, our focus is on who’s here.”

The match has a doubly important feel, however, following that gut-wrenching, last kick of the ball loss as Munster completed a recovery from 24-10 behind inside the final quarter of the match.

“We’re really happy with the way we went last week, we did a lot of good stuff and should have won that game, but we didn’t, so we’ve got to look at the part we played in that and learn from it,” said Rennie.

‘‘ He’s a destructive defender and he’s got lovely hands