Wilson seeks new recruits in bid to perform better on the road
Danny Wilson plans to sign two more big names for Glasgow Warriors over the next few months in addition to the two he has already recruited for next season.
The Warriors head coach is confident that South African lock JP du Preez and Tongan No 8 Sione Vailanu, whose arrivals in the summer have already been confirmed, will make a significant impact on his squad. But he appears convinced that further strengthening is required after a weekend in which Glasgow yet again underperformed away from home – in this case losing a 13-point lead against Cardiff to go down to a 32-28 defeat.
“We’re certainly looking to strengthen our squad,” Wilson said. “I think we’ve done that to an extent with the ones that we’ve announced – Du Preez and Vailanu are two big impact players in the forwards. We’ve got a couple more that we’ll perhaps be announcing at the relevant time as well.”
Part of the coach’s remit is to develop players for the national team as well as making his own side as competitive as possible, and with that balance in mind he suggested that only one of the planned additional signings would be Scottish. “I would say there is a bit of both,” he continued.
“In this period now, even though our international players are back, we have to manage and look after a few of them. We can’t keep playing them – and rightly so. We need a squad that can deal with that.
“We need to be able to get Scottish players out there and to develop Scottish rugby players – internationals and the next crop of internationals. That is 100 per cent our responsibility. But you have to do that with a sprinkling of talent that is here all the time – you're not going to lose it, you don't have to manage it, you've got it here playing when you need it.”
Wilson complained that against Cardiff his team had again exhibited a lack of ruthlessness in an away match – a failing that he believes needs to be eradicated if the Warriors are to become genuine title contenders in the URC.
“On the road that’s three times that’s happened to us,” he continued. “Scarlets I can see illness and an issue there that perhaps affected us physically; I think Exeter and this Cardiff game you’ve got to ask serious questions about going on the road and bridging the gap between being contenders and being a championship team.
“We spoke about it as a group – we did things a bit differently today and got opinion from senior leaders and from the playing group generally. There’s the technical and tactical side of that and there’s a
mental side as well. We discussed that today and it’s the next part of us achieving what we want to achieve.”
Glasgow play bottom club Zebre on Friday in their last game of the regular season at
Scotstoun, but they then face three tough away matches in a row as they try to stay in the league’s top four places and thus secure a home quarterfinal in the play-offs.
“A championship team wins
regularly on the road and that’s the next step for us,” Wilson concluded.
“We’ve taken huge steps this season from last season, but the final steps are about being more consistent on the road.”