Warriors urged to let go of the past
FOR Franco Smith, tonight’s clash between his Glasgow Warriors and Cardiff is a new beginning — in more ways than one.
The South African takes charge at Scotstoun for the first time since taking over from Danny Wilson, with the new man claiming his side have yet to lose the baggage of the previous regime.
His own reign began in inauspicious fashion last weekend as the Warriors hardly fired a shot in their 33-11 defeat to Benetton in their opening United Rugby Championship match.
Determined to view that display as nothing more than a false start, however, Smith is now hoping his side can kickstart their season at the second time of asking.
‘It’s my first home game and for a lot of the players, too,’ he said. ‘I’m hoping we can manage the emotion properly as emotional intelligence is something that’s very important.
‘Our theme this week was to get rid of the past results. What we’re risking to hold us down is that we’re referencing too much to what happened before.
‘It’s our own story. It’s a new beginning. Last week for me formed part of the previous coaching group’s regime as a lot of the habits we saw last weekend were not coached in this little pre-season that we had together.
‘We understand that there’s a lot of baggage that we’re carrying from previous years and we’ve got to get rid of it. This is a new start. Hopefully this game at home will be that line in the sand.
‘There are no panic buttons here. We’re just trying to grow what we have been doing.’
Although they have home advantage against Cardiff, the Welsh outfit arrive at Scotstoun off the back of an impressive win over Munster last weekend.
Smith has made four changes to the pack that was outmuscled against Benetton and in the backs keeps faith in fly-half Tom Jordan, who struggled on his debut in Treviso.
There is no place even on the bench for experienced No 10 Duncan Weir despite his claims earlier this week that he is fit and raring to go.
‘We have to grow people like Thomas in that role,’ said Smith. ‘We have outlined the plan to all players and coaching staff and continuity is important to us.
‘With that in mind, I don’t want people to think the changes in the pack is a reaction to what happened. It’s just progression. We want a proper start this week against Cardiff.’
Smith has taken the decision not to recall Scotland international Sam Johnson to partner his international teammate Sione Tuipulotu in the centre after being impressed by Stafford McDowall.
‘Stafford is only 24 and he has been around the club for a long time,’ said Smith. ‘He has been sitting behind quality players so it wasn’t all about what he didn’t do, it was about what other players were doing that meant he didn’t get the opportunities.
‘He is a strong player who has an educated left boot on him and is good at distributing the ball. The thing that has held a lot of the players in this team back is the pressure to perform.
‘The processes must be put in place in an environment where they are allowed to make mistakes and allowed to grow. That’s one of the reasons why I stuck with him this week.
‘Yes, there were mistakes against Benetton but everyone makes mistakes at the start of the season. Why not give this guy a chance to make that next step with confidence?’ Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff at Scotstoun. Kick-off 7.35pm. LIVE on Premier Sports. Glasgow: Forbes; Cancelliere, Tuipulotu, McDowall, Steyn; Jordan, Horne; Bhatti, Brown, Z Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, M Fagerson, Dempsey, Darge. Replacements: Turner, Kebble, Sordoni, Du Preez, Manjezi, Gordon, Price, Miotti.