Warriors hero Vernon warns of backlash
Vernon tempers his joy with reality
JUST as Glasgow unleashed their danger men on Saturday to finish top of the Pro12 for the first time, so they are ready for a backlash primed around the return of Ulster’s world-class players on Friday.
Yes, they defeated a side with most of their big names remaining on the bench, but that didn’t stop Scotstoun erupting wildly after Richie Vernon scored the fourth try that clinched the bonus point, top spot and, crucially, a home semifinal re-match with the Irish side.
With Munster and the Ospreys also winning — the latter without a bonus point — his score was vital. Gregor Townsend knows Ulster will be a different proposition this time round. But having a home tie means everything.
Glasgow have reached the semis in four of the five years since playoffs were introduced. In the first three they were away from home and lost. In fact, all 10 have gone the way of the home side so far. When they finally made it to the top two in the league last year, in Townsend’s second season at the helm, they pipped Munster 16-15 at Scotstoun and there was no doubting the uplifting effect the home crowd had on the side in a pulsating final quarter.
So the Warriors knew what was at stake on Saturday when trailing 10-6 at half-time to Ulster after an insipid first-half display. They had chosen to play into the strong wind, and then rain, hoping to avoid handing Ulster’s world-class bench a wind boost in the second half, but the players seemed to read ‘wind in your face’ as meaning ‘play no rugby’ and lacked their necessary verve and tempo.
Townsend reminded them at half-time of the ambition that had got them to this point and hammered home the message by sending on five replacements on the 50-minute mark.
Thirty minutes and four tries later, the home crowd and players were going nuts.
‘The guys all just leapt on me — it was a bit l i ke a f ootball celebration,’ said t r y- scorer Vernon, a former back row turned centre. ‘It was mad.
‘There was a big wind and we realised we wouldn’t be able to play a lot of rugby in the first half, but we said at half-time that we hadn’t really fired a shot.’
Despite his vital contribution, Vernon recognised that Stuart Hogg’s moment of brilliance in the 54th minute was the turning point.
‘Hoggy’s bit of inspiration out of nothing gave us a bit of belief and you could see us up the tempo and the accuracy from there, and when we got the next one we knew with 20 minutes left we needed two tries and were pretty confident we could do that.’
Hogg took a high pass with an outstretched arm, accelerated into space, and chipped long into the Ulster half when forced to the right touchline. He outpaced the cover, and gathered when the ball sat up to sprint and dive into the right-hand corner.
It was just one try, with three more needed, but i t was the ignition point for these Warriors. Yet that kind of spark has been a common part of Glasgow’s improvement.
Signing and developing players such as Hogg, Finn Russell, Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Sean Maitland, Tommy Seymour, DTH van der Merwe, Niko Matawalu, Leone Nakarawa and Adam Ashe, to name a few, has been at the heart of Glasgow’s rise.
Townsend has t aken Sean Lineen’s competitive team, and the SRU’s money, and sharpened it into a more clinical side.
Ulster know that, which was one reason why they started Saturday’s game without Ruan Pienaar, Rory Best, Tommy Bowe, Paddy Jackson, Iain Henderson and Roger Wilson. Others like Jared Payne, Peter Nelson, Darren Cave, Craig Gilroy, Callum Black, Wiehahn Herbst and Dan Tuohy were said to be carrying injuries, but expect most if not all to return to the starting line-up this week. They are the game-changers that have made Ulster title contenders.
Glasgow’s attacking arsenal has been reduced by i njuries to Maitland, van der Merwe, Bennett and Dunbar but, as Vernon showed, they have a growing array of finishers across the team — and Hogg is leading the charge.
This time last year he was on the outside looking in as his teammates celebrated reaching the Pro12 Final. He had been spotted in Belfast, ironically, at a meeting
with Ulster and was looking at a move. Townsend only wanted committed players, so made Hogg watch from the sidelines.
The youngster later admitted his head was all over the place and his attitude poor, but he got his head down, worked closely with Townsend and other mentors, and signed on to 2017.
It is to the 22-year-old’s eternal credit that he regained his focus and has taken his game to a higher level of consistency this season. Glasgow needed him on Saturday and will again on Friday.
After rarely seeing the ball in attack for 50 minutes, due to errors inside him, he launched the fightback. Russell followed with two well-taken scores — the first owing much to the courage of Henry Pyrgos. After botching a blindside break, Pyrgos again went against the plan, tapped a penalty and exposed Ulster defence for Russell to exploit — before Vernon scored the all-important fourth.
‘All of the tries came from a lot of hard work across the team and squad and that is always how tries come about,’ said Townsend. ‘We have special players we like to encourage to do special things.’
Glasgow lost last year’s Final to Leinster in Dublin and the authorities have made it trickier again by changing the tradition where the league winner at this stage — now Glasgow — are given home advantage should they make it to the final.
Instead, Ulster’s Ravenhill — now Kingspan Stadium — was selected to host it on May 30 whether they are involved or not. That partly influenced head coach Neil Doak’s gamble of resting leading figures — reckoning that an away semi is better than a tired team lacking their world- class threat one step from a home final.
Vernon added: ‘Last year the atmosphere in the semi-final was unbelievable and we put in a great performance to get through against a spirited Munster side.
‘Ulster will tweak things and are going to come back here and fancy their chances. It’s going to be a great occasion and such a challenge. Semi-final rugby tends to be on a knife edge, so we’ll need to be more accurate and take our chances even better.’
Chances. Threats. Finishing. Four tries in 19 minutes was not a bad confidence booster. GLASGOW — Tries: Hogg, Russell (2), Vernon; Pens: Russell (2); Cons: Russell (3). ULSTER — Try: Henry; Pen: Humphreys; Con: Humphreys.