The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Wins must come first for Glasgow Warriors
Warriors assistant insists Lyon won’t be treated lightly and have point to prove
Former maths teacher Dave Rennie has already worked out the permutations for Glasgow to reach the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals, but assistant Mike Blair says the Warriors are focusing on the most basic equation – winning their games.
The usual marker for qualification is 19 to 20 points, which the Warriors could reach with bonus point wins in their remaining pool games at home, Lyon on Saturday and Cardiff Blues in the New Year – having already secured try bonus victories against those teams on their travels.
The weekend rout in Lyon, Glasgow’s biggest win in France in European competition, sets them up nicely, but there is no question of anyone at Scotstoun believing the Frenchmen, now surely out of the tournament, can be taken lightly.
“We’re wary that sometimes French teams, when they’ve got less to play for and they’ve got more of a free spirit with the amount of quality they’ve got, can be very dangerous,” said Blair.
“Our own performance of the season so far has been the Scarlets game and we had a lot of guys resting for that. Even if they don’t pick the same side as the weekend, often guys come in with a point to prove.
“They’re going really well in the French Championship at the moment and they’ll have players desperate to get involved in those kind of games, so that could be even more dangerous.”
As for the permutations, Blair dropped maths in school but knows the basics.
“Ten points away from home has been great but we didn’t get any points at home (in defeat to Saracens in Round One) so we need to gain something back on that,” he pointed out.
“Dave was a maths teacher so he’ll have it worked out.
“There’s an eye on how many points traditionally can get you through, that 19/20 points is a good marker but it can change each year.”
In the meantime, Glasgow have to temper the desire for bonus points with the necessity to win.
“The way our attack is and our philosophy means we play a lot of rugby anyway, so getting that balance right, building a score against them and then obviously the bonus point is something we’re keen on, but we’re aware that we have to win the game first,” continued Blair.
“We were really pleased with the result at the weekend, but we’ve probably been quite tough on the players on some of the performance aspects.
“We looked at the time in the game when we gave the penalties away and we piggy-backed penalties, giving them opportunities from us attacking on their line, giving away a couple of soft penalties and suddenly we’re defending a lineout on our own 22.
“I think we need to stay on top of the lineout, the personnel they’ve got there.
“And (French international) Noa Nakaitaci didn’t really get into the game. We did well to keep the ball away from him and pressure him when he did get the ball, but a guy like him, if he gets a little bit of room, is dangerous and they’ve got players like him all across the pitch.”
In attack, Blair’s speciality, five tries were welcome but there were more chances, he added.
“We made a fair few line breaks. I think it was a real positive the amount of players we had in support but we didn’t quite finish off.
“They worked back really well to get in the passing channels – I think it happened two or three times where almost on that scoring pass they got a hand in with a player chasing back.
“Obviously it’s something that we’ve talked about and how we can make the most of it, but I think probably getting a try bonus point away from home we’ve got to be pleased with that side of things as well.”