WANTED MAN RENNIE ON A EURO MISSION
Kiwi plans to exit Glasgow on a high
It won’t just be Glasgow Warriors fans scrutinising how Dave Rennie’s team perform in the early stages of the Heineken Cup. With Australia and New Zealand both interested in making him their next head coach, a winning start against Sale Sharks at Scotstoun today and away to Exeter Chiefs next weekend will make him an even hotter property than he is at present.
this will be Rennie’s third and final crack at Europe with the club. Going out on a high would only increase his growing army of admirers.
If the 55-year-old Kiwi is feeling under any kind of pressure in the circumstances, he certainly isn’t showing it. the mask never slips with Rennie.
‘Regardless of what is happening with me, the game in Europe is a vitally important one,’ said the Glasgow boss, who will stay with the Warriors until the end of the season when his contract expires.
‘Sale are a tough side based around a big pack, solid kicking game and strong defence. We know what to expect. they’ll be coming through the front door.
‘We’ve had a scratchy start to our league campaign but, over the last two weeks, we’ve been really good. So we’re building and we have a lot of confidence.
‘It’s nice to be playing the first European game at home, but we’re well aware of the threat that Sale bring.’
that menace from Sharks, however, is not as great as it could have been.
World Cup-winning scrum-half Faf de Klerk has been given extra time off to recover mentally and physically from his exertions with South Africa in Japan.
tom Curry and Mark Wilson of losing finalists England are also being rested, while De Klerk’s Springboks team-mate Lood de Jager misses out through injury.
Cameron Redpath, son of former Scotland captain Bryan, will feature at outside-centre for Sale, while Byron McGuigan — who didn’t make Scotland’s World Cup squad — starts on the wing against his former club at Scotstoun.
Nick Grigg returns to Warriors’ starting team at outside-centre as Scotland international Huw Jones’ fall from grace continues
— he doesn’t even make the match-day squad.
‘Huw isn’t picked,’ said Rennie. ‘He has gone really well. His attack has been excellent but I have plumped with Nick as Sale have some big ball carriers, which is the reason we have gone with him.
‘It was a really tight decision between him and Huw, but we’ve gone for our strongest defensive pairing, and that’s Nick and Sam Johnson.
‘We have Kyle Steyn on the bench because he can cover centre and also covers wing for us, so we have more flexibility.’
George Horne will start at scrum-half, while Ali Price has recovered from the foot injury he picked up in the opening World
Cup defeat to Ireland and is ready to make his first appearance of the season off the bench.
It is no foregone conclusion that Price will automatically slot back into the Glasgow starting team when match fit, as Rennie has been impressed with Horne in his absence.
‘George has played really well for us,’ said the head coach. ‘He had a very strong World Cup and has been excellent since he has been back with us.
‘Clearly, he suits the type of game that we play, which is high pace, high skill.
‘It’s important that George gets to the breakdown quickly and allows us to play our type of game.
‘Ali is very similar and last season they were scrapping it out. We want to get a bit more rugby into Ali but he has worked hard and is on the bench this week.’
Rennie will be looking to improve on his previous two European campaigns with Glasgow.
First time around, they didn’t make it out of their group, but last season they reached the quarter-finals, where they lost 56-27 to eventual champions Saracens in London. ‘You have to beat the best 20 teams in Europe but we have worked really hard over the last couple of years,’ said Rennie. The other opponents in Warriors’ group are La Rochelle and an Exeter Chiefs side featuring former Glasgow star Stuart Hogg.
‘We have a better squad with a lot more depth in it and we have a pack that can compete in Europe, continued Rennie.
‘I thought we were really good in Europe last season and we have a good understanding of the type of game we are trying to play. On our day, we can knock over anybody.
‘That has to be our mindset. We are playing against teams with much bigger budgets but it is 15 versus 15 on the day. We have prepared well and we are ready.
‘With the World Cup boys coming back in, we sort of planned about three or four weeks of selection, dictated by form and injury.
‘We are pretty happy with the team we have. We are not too bad off from an injury point of view, so it’s a pretty strong side.’