Kellockdemandsright reaction to Scarlets loss

Captain knows Glasgow’s play-off hopes hang on using setback to fire them up, writes Kevin Ferrie Worries for Warriors

AS Glasgow prepare for this week’s potentially decisive meeting with defending RaboDirect Pro12 c h a mp i o n s Ospreys, Al Kellock has demanded that the Warriors refocus on their principal goal of reaching the playoffs after they appeared to lose sight of it on Friday night.

The obvious impression was that a team who started Friday at the top of the table, needing to win their three remaining matches to secure a first home semi-final and the prospect of bringing the grand final to Scotland, had failed to concentrate on the task at hand as they were brushed aside 29-6 by the Scarlets in Llanelli.

Kellock seemed as shocked as anyone in the aftermath, during which head coach Gregor Townsend claimed the right preparation had been done but the problems had been mental. But the captain accepted he and his men must take responsibility and react in the right way when the Swansea-based side visit Scotstoun this Friday.

“Certainly when you look at a performance like that you have to address everything, so we’ve got to make sure that nothing’s creeping in subconsciously,” Kellock said. “We knew the job was to qualify which could have been done in this game. You come down here and get beaten but to get beaten like that is not who we are and it will hurt a lot. It has to be turned into a positive.

“We put ourselves in a great position at the top of the table and maybe we l ooked at that as individuals – we didn’t do it collectively. We have to look at qualifying for these semi- finals and we have to do that a game at a time. We’ve had bad games in GLASGOW’S prospects of reaching the RaboDirect PRO12 play-offs were dented last night as Leinster and Ospreys, two of their main rivals for the all-important top-four slots, recorded victories over Munster and Treviso respectively.

Leinster’s 22-16 win in Limerick was secured with a 71st-minute try by Brian O’Driscoll. The result moved them into second place behind Ulster in the PRO12 table, overtaking Glasgow. Ospreys won 28-3 at the Liberty Stadium to sit fourth, ahead of Scarlets on points difference.

The only consolation for Glasgow is that neither victor gained a bonus point.

Leinster led Munster 12-10 at half time, but had been outscored 2-0 in the try count, with Ian Keatley crossing in the 21st minute for Munster and Felix Jones adding the second six minutes later. Ian Madigan had kept Leinster in front with four penalties, before O’Driscoll’s clincher.

With two weekends left, league leaders Ulster appear in a strong position. Their remaining matches are against Connacht (away) and Cardiff (home). Glasgow face Ospreys (home) and Connacht (away). the past, but not really this year ... however, when we have we’ve come out stronger and better for it, so that’s what’s got to happen now.”

Kellock arrived i n Glasgow in 2006 at a time when the team were renowned for playing pretty rugby but were also held in some contempt by opponents, having been branded “nice to watch and nice to play against”.

Since then he has played a huge role in helping turn them into a team who could grind out results, reaching the Pro12 play-offs in two of the past three seasons by making themselves tough to play against.

With substantial extra resources behind them, the hope was that they could move on to a new level this season and they have looked extremely stylish at times, particularly against teams in the lower half of the table and during the international windows.

However, Kellock knows they have now made themselves look vulnerable at the crunch stage when the pressure is on and everyone is at full strength.

“That’s fair comment,” he said of the charge that this was a throwback to the sort of performances Glasgow thought they had put behind them. “They came out faster than us, we then got ourselves rattled and made mistakes we don’t normally make. It was one of those games you never felt you had any control over for any period of time.

“Scarlets controlled the game fantastically well. They must have been sitting in their changing room talking about the way they put us under pressure when we had the ball, the way they attacked us and stretched our defence.

“We did none of that but we’re capable of doing it and we’ve shown we can do it. We’ve had some fantastic results this season and we’re still in a good place.

“At this time of the season especially you don’t have too much time to dwell on things, and it’s been said in the changing room that it’s actions that change things – not words, not meetings.

“It’s actions on the training pitch and then on the park next week against the Ospreys, who will look at Friday’s game and think they’re coming up to do the same to us as Scarlets did.”