IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN

Rennie vows Warriors will wisen up in Montpellier showdown

SUCH has been the rise of Glasgow Warriors over the past few seasons that the bar is now set high for their head coach.

For Dave Rennie, in his first season in charge at Scotstoun, there would have been two targets considered the minimum requirement at the beginning of the campaign.

The first, to qualify for the Guinness Pro14 play-offs. Victorious in all of their opening ten league games, the Warriors are well on the way to achieving that.

The other was to emulate last season’s historic progression in the European Champions Cup by reaching the knockout stages once more. That one, however, may prove a little trickier...

Opening defeats to Exeter Chiefs away and Leinster at home have done substantial damage. Now, only a bonus-point victory over Vern Cotter’s Montpellier tonight will keep alive their slim hopes of qualification.

It is not outwith the realms of possibility, but they will face world-class talent like New Zealand fly-half Aaron Cruden, South African hooker Bismarck du Plessis and Frenchman Louis Picamoles at Scotstoun. If things do not go the Warriors’ way, they will crash out of the tournament after just three games.

Having no European points, or ‘a duck egg’ as Rennie describes it, at this stage of the campaign was not in the script when the Kiwi took over, of course.

Indeed, it is almost difficult to believe that the Glasgow side which has swept all before them in the Pro14 has thus far stuttered quite so badly when it has come to continental competition.

In truth, there is little mystery as to why they lost their first two matches in the group. What is perhaps surprising is that lessons were not learned from the first of those against Exeter.

Against the English side, Glasgow lost the forwards battle, conceding two close-range tries that laid the foundations for a 24-15 defeat.

The following weekend against Leinster was a painful repeat.

The Irish side’s head coach Leo Cullen had spotted Glasgow’s weakness up front and exploited it. He told his forwards to be patient, punch holes in the Warriors defence, then crash over. It worked.

Prop Cian Healy scored Leinster’s first two tries from close range, mirroring what Exeter had done. Fly-half Johnny Sexton and centre Noel Reid then added the sheen to a 34-18 drubbing.

Afterwards, Cullen admitted he had watched re-runs of Glasgow’s defeat the previous week and simply adopted the same tactics. cover it up. Tonight, they simply cannot afford to be left exposed once more.

Cotter likes his Montpellier team to kick to the corners and then let the forwards do the work with the rolling maul towards the opposition try line.

It may not be pretty to watch, but it’s mightily effective.

The challenge for Rennie is to find a way of stopping it.

‘We didn’t get it right in our first two European games,’ he admitted yesterday. ‘If you drop a couple of games in the Pro14, you have time to claw that back because the league is a marathon.

‘Europe is a sprint, which is why we have to win this one.

‘Look, we do not want to be a team that is known for just going round the outside.

‘We want to challenge in different areas and have talked about the need to go through and be strong up the middle.

‘We will be facing a massive team that will ask questions of us with their ball-carriers. We expect them to be really brutal.

‘If we give away penalties, they will put us in the corner and these guys are prepared to go 20-odd phases, an inch at a time.

‘We learned a lot losing our first two games and losing has put us under a bit of pressure ahead of this game.’

Indeed it has. But it’s worth remembering that Montpellier will still have a job on their hands to negate the many weapons Rennie has it his disposal.

The newest of which is Scotland centre Huw Jones, who will be thrown into a true baptism of fire on his debut.

‘There is a little bit of the extra factor about Huw,’ said Rennie. ‘He has been in fantastic form for Scotland — as has Sam Johnson for us.

‘It was not an easy decision to pick the midfield pairing, but they got the nod ahead of Nick Grigg and Alex Dunbar. Overall, we have some great options in midfield.’

Rennie will be renewing his acquaintance with Cotter tonight, which dates back to their time in New Zealand.

The Warriors coach was at Wellington when Cotter was at Bay of Plenty when they first faced each other 17 years ago. Now they find themselves on the other side of the world in a high-stakes game.

‘Vern is hugely respected in New Zealand,’ said Rennie. ‘He is a tough operator and he will be demanding physicality from his team. He is an innovative thinker around the game, as well.

‘He brings a team to face us with too many dangermen to mention. I know a lot about Aaron Cruden, who is one of the best No 10s in the world.

‘I worked with him a hell of a lot of years at Manawatu, New Zealand Under-20s and the Chiefs.

‘Aaron has a great understanding of the game and is really driven. He has a very attacking mindset and it is a bit different for me to be coaching against him.

‘He is very similar to Finn Russell in that he has the ability to challenge defences and ask questions. He has an excellent skillset, so it is an outstanding match up.’

In the run-up to the game, Rennie, who lives in the shadow of the Wallace monument, has been using every motivational tool he knows to prepare his side.

Perhaps looking to crank up the old Braveheart element, the Warriors visited Stirling Castle and Bannockburn.

‘We had a great day up there last Sunday and we will feed off that for a number of weeks,’ he said.

One can only hope that warrior spirit will serve them well against Montpellier.