Grigg sees Rainbow Cup as fresh start
NICK GRIGG says he is treating the Rainbow Cup as part of a new season – one in which Glasgow can show their true colours after an inconsistent PRO14 campaign.
The tournament, which kicks off for the Warriors with a game at Benetton on Saturday, is officially still part of the 2020-21 season, with the PRO14 programme having been curtailed in order to accommodate it. But a three-week break since the Challenge Cup defeat by Montpellier has left his squad feeling refreshed, according to Grigg, who is confident the team can rediscover their best form over the coming weeks.
“The main PRO14 season was up and down and a bit of a roller-coaster for us, so this is definitely a fresh start for the team,” the centre said. “Everyone has been really positive and looking forward to firing into this new comp. We did really well the year before, and we’ve got the players with the potential to get us the wins we want. It’s just down to a bit of direction and positivity as we head into the next few weeks.
“We want to take the good things out of what we did in the PRO14, but there’s obviously a lot of things that we also need to improve on. So
we’re seeing this as starting a new season. We want to win this competition, and I’m sure every team will be thinking the same.
“The fresh start will be good for us in terms of making an impact on this competition. If we get a couple of wins under our belt it creates a trend where you get that confidence up and there’s a positive knock-on effect.”
The three law variations that are being tried out in the Rainbow Cup will certainly make it feel different from the PRO14, for all that most of the teams are the same. The fact that a red card will now only see a team go a man down for 20 minutes has led to suggestions that sides could become less disciplined, but Grigg believes it is important that the Warriors try to improve on that front after yellow and red cards – including a spell in the sin bin for himself at the end of the Montpellier match – cost them heavily in some league games.
“Some teams could say, ‘Well, if we get a red card we’re only a man down for 20 minutes’. But we want to minimise our penalty count, as that really let us down in the PRO14 season.”