Frustrated Wilson counts cost of ill-discipline and injuries
Danny Wilson admitted his Glasgow side had come off second best in the physical battle against the Bulls after they lost 29-17 in Pretoria last night.
The Warriors played well in spells, scoring two tries and coming close to a couple of others.
However, after a bright start they fell behind just before half-time and never got back on terms against the powerful South Africans.
“We’ve certainly been taught a few lessons here,” the head coach said. “Again, physically we really struggled, we lacked breakdown presence, couldn’t get go-forward and were then isolated. When we did try to have a crack at them we couldn’t string enough together to do it.
“They are a good team, there is no doubt about that. They are a powerful team and we lost physically tonight, quite comfortably.”
The Warriors appeared to be more disciplined than they had been in their defeat
by the Stormers in Cape Town a week earlier, but Zander Fagerson was yellowcarded on the brink of halftime and Wilson thought his team’s overall penalty count was still too high.
“Our discipline let us down, which has usually been relatively good,” he said. “We gave away a couple of cheap penalties which piggybacked them down the field.”
The Warriors next game is the Challenge Cup quarterfinal against Lyon in France a week today, and Wilson fears his squad will be significantly depleted as a result of the injuries sustained over the two games in South Africa. Rory Darge injured a knee, Thomas Gordon was concussed and Fraser Brown hurt a shoulder last night and it remains to be seen if any of them is cleared to play in France.
“We unfortunately lost a lot of players to injury,” the coach concluded. “It was the same last week, so there are a number of players who are going to get a different experience and get on the field for us.
“Well learn a lot from this. We’re going to patch ourselves up and go again next week, when we’ve got a big game in Europe, then the end of the season is all away from home."