Warriors’ derby-day diagnosis ‘not terminal’ for Rennie despite defeat
BEFORE Saturday’s derby Dave Rennie said he would know more about his side after the game. At its end, the Glasgow Warriors head coach said that his players would not be defined by the outcome of two mid-season derbies. Contradictory as those observations may seem, there is truth in both.
This was Rennie’s fourth loss in five derby encounters and, more tellingly perhaps, only Edinburgh’s second competitive success on their domestic rivals’ home patch in 15 years and in maintaining a recent dominance that has produced eight wins in 10 meetings since the start of 2015, the men from the east revived worrying questions about Glasgow’s capacity to cope when opponents will not comply with their desire to throw the ball around at what is a key point in the season.
Champions Cup pool rivals Saracens and perhaps even Glasgow’s next opponents in that competition, Cardiff Blues, will have drawn encouragement from the way in which they have been closed down not only by Edinburgh, but for much of the game by Lyon’s muscular second-string side immediately ahead of the derbies and Rennie accepted that they must work out how to address that, saying: “The key for our quick ball is the quality of our footwork and big men in contact, winning races in and then playing at a tempo.
“The issue last week was that we didn’t work hard enough to get in position quick enough to expose them.
“Everyone is well aware it’s an important part of our game and they will do what they can to slow it down. We just need to be better in that area. If we can get better carries and footwork and win races in, we’ll get faster ball and stretch defences.”
A trip to Treviso next weekend now looks particularly awkward timing since the Italians are no push-overs any more, particularly at home and Glasgow’s cushion at the top of the Conference A table has gone, making it a match they cannot afford to treat lightly, but that they cannot allow to interfere with preparations for those ensuing Champions Cup encounters with Cardiff and Saracens which will define their campaign.
“We are not going to panic,” Rennie insisted, however. “We have a plan for the group we’re going to send.
“We have to rest some guys over the next week or two, but there are individuals who will try to pressure on us for selection against Cardiff.”
In the meantime, Rennie must try to focus on what good can be made of these derby setbacks which he seemed to suggest may just include instilling in his players a need to earn the right to play rather than cruising to PRO14 wins week after week, then repeatedly coming unstuck when intensity levels are raised.
“You want to win every week, but… even the best teams, like Saracens, go through massive troughs losing games on end and come out the other end of it. We’re disappointed with the performance but it’s not terminal,” he asserted.
“There’s a lot of things we’ve done well over recent weeks. This will force us to have a look at what we’re doing and be a lot sharper in a couple of key areas. There will be learnings.
“It’s disappointing that we left a few points on the park and have gone back into the pack a bit, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“Last year we got such a big lead and later in the year we didn’t have the desperation to ensure that we performed well. It looks like we’ll be in that position this year and it’s our job to fight our way out of it.”