Warriors’ loyal fans deserve a lot more at Scotstoun

GLASGOW WARRIORS have become the victims of their own success this season — but that is not the only reason they haven’t made the Pro12 play-offs.

Having a record 18 players away on international duty with Scotland during the Autumn Tests and Six Nations didn’t help their cause, of course.

But it has been their displays at ‘Fortress Scotstoun’ which have let them down far too often during the current campaign.

Indeed, their home league form is the poorest it has been since Gregor Townsend (below) took over four years ago and it’s no surprise that it has coincided with Warriors almost certainly failing to make the play-offs for the first time under his stewardship.

When Glasgow finished third last season, they won nine out of ten matches at home.

What would have been their 11th home game, against Edinburgh, was moved to Murrayfield due to a waterlogged pitch at Scotstoun.

This term, with two home games to come, they have won five, but, crucially, lost four. No fingers of blame can be pointed at the playing surface as new artificial turf, which suits their running style of rugby, was laid last summer.

And they certainly can’t blame a lack of support as they have been attracting record crowds.

Every single match at Scotstoun, regardless of the opposition, has been a 7,300 sell-out or pretty close to one. It will be the same against second-bottom club Zebre tomorrow evening, with a capacity crowd expected for what is, in reality, a fixture against a poor Italian side where nothing is at stake. So far, Glasgow have welcomed more than 63,000 fans for league games alone at Scotstoun this season, which is a remarkable figure. Such loyal support deserves better performances from their team on their home turf — and it is something that incoming head coach Dave Rennie will have to address. He obviously needs more strength in depth to provide adequate cover when the likes of Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Finn Russell are away on Scotland duty. But he also has to make sure that Scotstoun is a place to strike fear into the heart of the opposition — an aura which has been lost of late.