Warriors will need to stand up and be counted after falling away last season
Commentary Allan Massie
Good-bye, friendlies. The real stuff starts this weekend. Actually the Top 14 got going in France a week ago, and Sky’s somewhat exiguous roundup programme afforded the happy sight of Finn Russell scoring two tries on his league debut for Racing 92 against Toulon.
It was an away win, and away wins aren’t that common in the Top 14. This week Racing entertain (if that’s the right word) Clermontauvergne whose very new-look side looked awesomely powerful, indeed frightening, as they ran up a huge score against an admittedly rather hapless Agen.
Edinburgh will have played the Ospreys before this column appears. If they have managed to win down in Swansea we can at least begin to believe that Richard Cockerill is really transforming them from perennial under-achievers into the sort of formidable unit that can be a title contender. They should have learned from their disappointing loss to Munster in last season’s knock-out stage, disappointing because they were by some way the better side, in control for much of the game, nevertheless let it slip away.
Glasgow also start away from home, and may perhaps think themselves lucky that their visit to the Galway Sportsground is taking place on what may, one hopes, be a mild September afternoon rather than, as is more usual, on a horrid, cold, wet and windy evening. That said, though Connacht may not be quite as strong as when they won the league when coached by Pat Lam a couple of seasons ago, nobody looks for an easy match in Galway. Coming away with a win feels like a happy escape. It will, however, be strange to see a Connacht side that isn’t being chivvied, driven on and inspired by their captain John Muldoon. He meant at least as much to Connacht as Al Kellock did to Glasgow.
If Edinburgh ended last season with their reputation enhanced, Glasgow’s was just a bit tarnished. They fell away in the last weeks and their semi-final at Scotstoun against the Scarlets was a sad affair, their game littered with mistakes. Their season actually started to go wrong in the first Champions Cup matches. Failing to get out of a pool in which their opponents were Leinster, Montpellier and Exeter, was no disgrace – and of course Leinster went on to win the Cup. But it was worrying that they were dominated upfront by all three opponents.
Even their one victory, the return home game against Exeter, was made possible only by much determined defence, failure of Exeter to take their chances, and three gloriously audacious Glasgow tries, scored from deep in their own half.