Jones: Warriors ‘buzzing’ ahead of Euro tie with Montpellier
Lee Jones is confident that Glasgow are again heading in the right direction as they prepare for Friday night’s Challenge Cup tie against Montpellier.
The Warriors winger knows that the defence in particular will need tightening up from the 46-25 win over Benetton on Saturday, but overall he was encouraged by the victory, which took Glasgow’s final tally for their Pro14 campaign to six wins from 16 games. “It was pretty convincing in the end,” Jones said. “I thought the game was pretty stop-start, but we knew that if we kept the ball and played with tempo they would struggle.
“We managed to do that in patches. It was disappointing to let in a couple of scores, but if we look at the overall scoreline, it’s pretty positive.
“There are still areas where we need to be a lot better, and if we’re not you can see us falling away pretty quickly and conceding scores. When it does come together, we’ve got to celebrate those wins. When we’re
scoring 46 points we’ve got to take the positives from that.
“But at the same time everyone knows there’s a lot that needs to be better. If we can do that, it will put us in better stead week on week.”
Beating Benetton is something that every other team have managed this season so is hardly commendable in itself, but in the context of their lame defeat by the Dragons a week earlier, Saturday’s win was a distinct improvement for the Warriors. And, with most of their sizeable Scotland contingent due to be back for Friday, Jones believes that Glasgow have good reason to look forward to the knockout match.
“It takes the focus away from the league, which has been a bit all over the place this season,” he continued. “It freshens it up a wee bit. It’s different opposition, a new challenge, and we’ve potentially got a few boys back with the squad.
“It’s almost like a restart. And I think the boys will be buzzing, especially on the back of a win, to get over there and give it a good go in France.
“We had a few conversations after the Benetton game and we know we’ll need to be a lot better on Friday to challenge Montpellier, especially defensively. We can’t afford to let in soft scores against anybody, but especially against a good French team.”