YOUTHFUL GLASGOW EDGED OUT AS HASTINGS SHOWS HIS CLASS
GLASGOW WARRIORS head coach Davie Rennie’s first match in charge showed him he has a star in the making in Adam Hastings, son of rugby legend Gavin. Hastings was the stand-out in a young Glasgow team that lost to a much more experienced Northampton Saints side in a pre-season friendly in Stirling.
With his first-choice players Jonny Gray, Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg, Ryan Wilson, Henry Pyrgos and Tommy Seymour either rested or injured, Rennie turned to his young guns like the 21-year-old fly-half, whose dad was watching from the stand.
Hastings did not let him down, putting in an assured performance in his debut at No10. Charlie Shiel, son of former Scotland international Graham, also did well beside him at scrum-half when he came on.
With first-choice fly-half Russell sure to be away a lot with Scotland, Rennie knows he now has a quality player in Hastings who can fill in.
‘I thought Adam Hastings did a really good job,’ said Rennie. ‘Overall, what today highlighted for me was that we have a lot of depth.
‘Yes they are green, but they will learn a lot from today and from the other opportunities they will get.
‘What we know is that a lot of the guys sitting in the stand today will be unavailable at certain times this season and these guys who played against Northampton we will look towards when they are away, so we will be better for that.’
Rennie said he was satisfied by the level of performance, albeit not with the result, in a game that hung in the balance until the final whistle.
‘I know we lost but I was pretty proud of those boys,’ he added.
‘We asked them to be brutal, we asked them to carry hard and our clean out was really good.’
Glasgow’s tries came from George Horne and captain-for-the-day Adam Ashe, with Hastings putting over both conversions. Northampton’s touchdowns came from Ahsee Tuala, Alex Mitchell and Tom Collins. Harry Mallinder converted two out of three tries.