Wilson: I can’t wait for Euro big guns
BRUISED and sore, he has just come off a battering first encounter with South African opposition in the Guinness Pro14 and is not ‘looking forward’ to a fivehour coach trip across the Veld to catch a plane back to Glasgow. Ryan Wilson sighs: ‘Pffff. I’ve been better … but it would have been a lot worse if we’d lost.’
The Warriors skipper speaks as he plays, to the point and with little time for fripperies.
And as they head back to Glasgow with a dramatic late 29-26 win over the Toyota Cheetahs secured, that is the mentality that gives head coach Dave Rennie hope the Warriors could secure a European quarter-final appearance in his first campaign, which starts in Devon on Saturday.
Glasgow have learned from 20 years of European competition how the steady climb up the hill of early domestic competition in October hits a European cliff face.
And so the appearance of the European Champions Cup’s Pool Three and the English champions Exeter on their Sandy Park horizon, to be followed by Johnny Sexton’s Leinster at Scotstoun, ahead of a back-to-back December showdown with Vern Cotter’s star-studded Montpellier, comes as no surprise.
That it rivals Pool Two’s ClermontNorthampton-Ospreys-Saracens line-up for the ‘pool of death’ title means little to Wilson either.
Winning the Pro12 brought a significant shift in Glasgow’s status, a move among the champions, and last season’s push into the quarterfinals with a ground-shaking 85-13 aggregate victory over Leicester, and home and away wins over Dan Carter and Racing 92, proved they had developed staying power.
Six wins from six in the new Pro14 and the difficult challenge of a trip to South Africa negotiated with a bonus point is hugely encouraging, but Wilson knows the performances have to get better to make Euro success a possibility.
‘We could play a lot better,’ he agreed, ‘but we are finding ways to win and it’s the sign of a good team that will go on and do well, if you can grind teams down, keep them close and find a way to win.
‘We’ve only clicked once, against Munster, so that (against Cheetahs) wasn’t our best performance but coming over here and getting five points is a pretty good achievement and a good way to roll into Europe.
‘Now we have to get better. The boss (Rennie) said he can’t believe what perfectionists we are — we are getting five points against teams and we are disappointed — but that’s the way we are. We want perfection, we want to be playing well. We are up there defensively, we are playing well, but we can do better. We have things to work on.
‘But that’s a positive approach. We got five points there (in South Africa) and we are still thinking what could we have done better?’
The reality is that all teams at the very top think that way, and he will meet them in coming weeks. Exeter won promotion from the English Championship, the second tier, seven years ago and said then that they had a seven-year plan to be the best in England. When they beat Wasps in an extra-time final, seven years on, chairman Tony Rowe vowed: ‘The European title is next’.
Leinster dropped from the top of the European firmament but with Sexton returned from his Racing misadventure they are rediscovering their resilience and desire to be Ireland’s and Europe’s best.
And then comes the meet with former Scotland coaches Cotter and Nathan Hines, now with a Montpellier side so star-studded it is putting Toulon in the shade.
Glasgow battled to cope with a big
Cheetahs pack, but they can expect their European opponents to try to squeeze their attacking threat.
Wilson (right) added: ‘I don’t believe we struggled with physicality against the Cheetahs. We have plenty of big men.
‘Exeter are the Prem champs but we can go down there and win. Leinster are past Euro champs but we’ll give it a crack and Montpellier are obviously big men, a huge pack, but we fronted up to the South Africans and we back ourselves.’