HE’S A FREAK!
Warrior Gray is top tackler in Europe
IN this case, the statistics don’t lie. When it comes to making tackles, Jonny Gray is simply the best in Europe. The Glasgow Warriors second row tops the chart with 72 in his five European Champions Cup matches thus far. And such have been his performances of late that Matt Taylor, the defence coach at Scotstoun, has backed him to reinforce his already impressive Lions credentials in the must-win clash against Leicester Tigers this weekend.
‘If you look at the stats for Jonny, he is a freak and we are so lucky to have him,’ he said. ‘He has been exceptional and he is defending really well, really getting off the line and getting in the faces of the opposition. His work rate is phenomenal.
‘He is definitely maturing and getting more confident in his game. There is a lot of work behind the scenes with Jonny and the leadership group that has brought him on as co-captain.
‘(Former captain) Al Kellock is involved heavily and he tries to impart some of his knowledge and experience to Jonny, who now has an impressive all-round game.’
Up until this season, the 22-yearold was primarily known for his expertise in the line-out and ability to get around the park in open play.
However, this campaign, the Scotland international has been staying behind after training to work on his defensive play and, according to Taylor, must now be a strong contender for the Lions tour of New Zealand in the summer.
‘For me, Jonny is a perfectionist,’ said the coach, who will leave the Warriors in the summer to be Gregor Townsend’s right-hand man with Scotland. ‘He will be one of the first ones out there on the training field and one of the last back in.
‘I am never surprised if he is still out there working on things long after training is finished. If he gets something wrong, he wants to do it again.
‘If he misses a tackle or misses a read, he is in the next day, saying: “I want to talk to you about this. I want to get this right”.
‘There are a lot of people who won’t do that, people (to whom) you have to say: “Come here, I want to go through that”.
‘I find him excellent to work with as he always wants to get better and does not rest on his laurels.
‘I hope he is in the frame for the Lions, I really do, and that he has a good Six Nations to help his case. I think he is good enough for the Lions and I am saying that from the point of view of someone who gets to work with him every day.
‘I am not picking the Lions squad, but those coaches who do will know how good he is.
‘It depends on what they want, but I will give him a recommendation.’
Taylor was not too downhearted at the way his side defended in the Champions Cup defeat to Munster at the weekend and insists that, if they had kept 15 men on the park for the full 80 minutes, they would have won.
As it turned out, a yellow card for full-back Stuart Hogg with ten minutes left allowed the Irish outfit to make use of the extra man and extra space to score the winning try.
‘I was really happy for 90 per cent of it, but disappointed in the lead up to Hoggy’s yellow. We needed to be a bit stronger in defence in that period,’ said Taylor.
‘I could not fault them for their endeavour, but, at this level, it is an 80-minute game and we cannot have a period when we drop off.
‘If we had not got the yellow card, we could have held Munster out, but it was not to be and we have to learn from that when we go in against Leicester. We have to keep our tackle count high on Saturday and I was pleased that Jonny put in 16 against Munster. We need to keep knocking Leicester Tigers down to have a chance of winning at Welford Road.’
Although Leicester cannot qualify following their away defeat to Racing 92, Taylor still believes they will be tough opponents at home.
‘We understand they are a very proud side with a very good record in this competition, which they have won twice,’ he continued. ‘They have not performed well in Europe this season, particularly last week away to Racing 92.
‘But I listened to the coach after the game and he was disappointed their team did not front up. Partly because of that, we are expecting a highly-motivated team, which we have to perform well against to get a result as they are always good at home.’