Despite clipping Falcons’ wings there is more to do
Glasgow Warriors will fly out to South Africa tomorrow morning in fine fettle after booking their place in the last eight of the European Challenge Cup with a convincing 27-17 win over Newcastle Falcons on Friday night.
However, Kyle Steyn – who scored two of his team’s four tries against the Falcons and was named Man of the Match – insists that the team are not going to get carried away by this one result.
Warriors are to play two United Rugby Championship matches against the Stormers in Cape Town and the Bulls in Pretoria during the next fortnight, before returning to Europe for their quarter-final clash against Lyon on the weekend of May 6-8.
“We’re stoked that we came down to Newcastle and got a good win, but we know that there is still a little bit to work on from that second half – that’s our big focus area,” said Steyn.
Warriors scored three unanswered tries as they raced into a 19-3 halftime lead against Falcons, but the couldn’t sustain that pace in the second half when the trycount was 2-1 in the home team’s favour.
While the win was never really in doubt, Steyn pointed out that Warriors need to be able to play close to their best for longer than 40 minutes if they are to be serious contenders in either the league or Europe come the end of the season.
“We’re notorious at the moment for not seeing starts like that out, so we won’t get ahead of ourselves,” he added.
“We know we’ve got a lot of away games now, two in South Africa then Lyon, so those are a lot of tough challenges. Steyn is initially from Johannesburg and he is looking forward to getting back on familiar territory during the next few weeks.
“I was at Stellenbosch uni and that’s where we’re staying, in the uni town, so I can’t wait to go back to my old stomping ground,” smiled the 29-yearold, who qualifies for Scotland through his Glaswegian mother. “At the Stormers, there’s the No. 9, Paul de Wet, that I was at uni with. The Bulls have a flyhalf, Chris Smith, who is one of my best mates. I’ve played against most of the guys...oli Kebble will probably know a lot more of them.
“There’s been some good bits of chat going back and forth already.
“I’ve lined up the odd game of golf.
“My family will definitely be at the Bulls game because it is only half an hour from home, but we’ll have to wait and see about the Stormers game.”
Steyn added that, while catching up with friends and family will be enjoyable, it won’t distract him from the main purpose of the trip, which is to help Glasgow become only the second European team – after Edinburgh – to taste victory in South Africa during this inaugural URC season.
“All those South African teams, because they’ve got so many home games now, they’re on a bit of a roll so we’ll have our work cut out for us,” he added.
“It feels like our season is building nicely, but we have a lot of rugby away from home coming up where we haven’t been great this season.”