Townsend: Glasgow still on war path . . . Europe is not a distraction
ARE the bright lights of Europe undermining Glasgow Warriors’ bread-andbutter business of trying to get into the Guinness PRO12 play-offs? Definitely not, says Gregor Townsend, the head coach. They may be facing an uphill struggle, but he remains confident they can kickstart a winning finale to the season.
“No not at all,” he replied to the suggestion that, with a first European Champions Cup quarter-final in the bag, the side is distracted from the day-to-day stuff. “There is a real desire to play as well as possible in every game.
“You see that in the training sessions – we have trained really well this week. The Tuesday session in the sleet and the rain, the guys were tackling each other and playing really well, showing aggression and desire to improve.
“I have been really pleased with the squad of players we have here, given that we have a number missing. This year it has been more challenging because of the quality of teams we’ve been playing during November and during the Six Nations but we have to deal with that.”
The problem is that with the Guinness PRO12 organisers setting aside set times for the Welsh and Irish to play derbies, six of the 14 weekends where Glasgow can guarantee to be clear of international demands are tied up playing the two Italian franchises and Edinburgh.
That inevitably means they are going to be playing a disproportionate number of the leading sides on the eight weekends when players may be tied up on international duty or be recovering from a Test series. With 13 in tomorrow’s Scotland squad to play Wales, plus the usual collection of injuries, that puts a lot of pressure on the second string, which, so far, has not delivered.
“We have a strong squad but we have not played at our best,” Townsend admitted. “I believe that if we play at our best level then we can win those challenging games. We are running out of games. We have to win.
“The top three teams are doing really well, so we knew that ourselves the Scarlets and Ulster are fighting hard to get into those play-off positions. We have lost to the Scarlets and Ulster [in the last fortnight], so it means that we have to pick up more wins than we were probably thinking two weeks ago.” Though Townsend has a huge amount of respect for the Ospreys, who they face in Swansea on Sunday, he knows they lost at home to Munster last weekend and that his side are capable of doing the same.
“It was a high-quality game, a highscoring game as well – which was a bit of a surprise because both the Ospreys and Munster are very good defensively,” he noted.
“The Ospreys have been in the top two most of the season. This year’s competition is the best standard I have seen it, so if the Ospreys are at the top, that means they are one of the best teams in Europe.”