Tenacious Turner happy to play through festive season
NO rest for the wicked – or, it seems, for George Turner. While most of his fellow Scotland squad members were given some time off by Glasgow Warriors during the last fortnight following the Autumn Test window, the 29-year-old has been asked to soldier on.
Injury to Fraser Brown and the recall by Sale Sharks of Ewan Ashman has left Warriors head coach Danny Wilson short of options at hooker, and Turner says he is delighted at having the chance to bounce straight from the international game back into the club game without missing a beat.
The 29-year-old did miss out on Scotland’s Autumn Test against South Africa due to a rib injury so he has not played all the way through the last two months, but he will need a break at some point before the turn of the year. For the time being, the prospect of playing in the opening round of this season’s Champions Cup on Sunday against La Rochelle, last season’s beaten finalists, is enough to push any sense of fatigue aside.
“I missed that South Africa week, but actually, the start of the season was a bit disrupted with a couple of injuries meaning I only played once or twice before the internationals, so I’m keen to keep going,” he explained. “It is still fairly early in the season, so it is nice to get away and refresh, but at my stage I think game time is what I need at the moment.”
“Away trips to France are always interesting, and with La Rochelle, they are a massive team with some brilliant players like Will Skelton and Gregory Alldritt,” Turner added. “We know there is things we could do better, so hopefully we can address that and improve again this week.
“It is pretty tight in the league, and we didn’t get that away win in Treviso a fortnight ago, which has left us behind where we want to be, but we can see a way back from that. However, in the Champions Cup, there isn’t that breathing space, with one slip-up potentially meaning you can’t make it out your group – so there is a lot more pressure this week, but that is exciting.
“La Rochelle have physically big players, but we’ll take confidence from several players having gone there and got the win a few seasons ago, so we’ll go there to play our game and have some fun.”