GREGOR’S VISION
Townsend driven in bid to seal the right formula at title-chasing Glasgow
THE ‘Holy Grail’ for many trying to improve Scottish football is the ability to meld the skills and passing ability of continental players with the spirit and steel of a Scots one. Now, something similar is driving Scottish rugby. Where football managers seek players with the passing ability of the Dutch, the pace and movement of Spaniards and the resilience of Scots, Gregor Townsend is striving with Glasgow Warriors to create a more skilled southern hemisphere-like Scottish rugby player without losing any of the country’s peculiar traits.
Townsend has sought advice from rugby teams i n the southern hemisphere and has even sought to learn from Aussie Rules, American Football and rugby league. Football, however, has always been close to his heart, since the days he represented the Borders and played for Edinburgh juvenile side Hutchison Vale as a striker.
After two seasons moulding a team in his guise, in his first head coach role, the 41-year-old’s Glasgow Warriors now sit top of the Guinness Pro12 with four games to go before the playoffs. And this week he spoke of a recent trip to Barcelona FC as being part of his bid to ensure not only that they become the first Scottish club to win the title, but remain at the top beyond the current season.
As a schoolboy player, Townsend (right) seemed driven to ‘think outside the box’ before that was even a recognised phrase. He watched the likes of John Rutherford, Gavin Hastings and Gary Armstrong winning with Scotland and, having played at a high standard in Scotland, England, Australia, France and South Africa, it is no surprise that he believes he can forge an ambitious new path for Glasgow.
It is a gradual process and nowhere was his ambition to create a more dynamic, attacking team more evident than in the Royal Dublin Society Showground on Friday night.
In one of the most impressive firsthalf displays from a Scottish team away from home, the players stunned Leinster with verve, pace, intelligence and deception that yielded tries for Stuart Hogg, Richie Vernon and Mark Bennett.
Glasgow went into the break 27-7 up and seemingly cruising to a bonus-point win that would probably have dashed Leinster’s play-off hopes. But the Warriors’ defence fell off the pace in the second half and Irish assistant referees did their bit for the national cause, with a series of interventions to bring Welsh referee Nigel Owens’ attention to what they deemed Glasgow infringements. Home assistants remains a controversial point in the league and Owens did not always take their word for it, referring three to the TMO for replays. Two were shown to be ridiculously false — a Stuart Hogg kick deemed to have gone dead was a couple of yards in touch, and a ‘punch’ by Alastair Kellock was an open-handed push of a player on the wrong side of a ruck. Owens dismissed both, which only wound up the 16,000-strong home support further.
One was accurate, however, and game-changing. Niko Matawalu, the scrum-half, reacted to being hit late in his back and then held on the ground, and again as he tried to run back to the action, by swinging an arm. Owens watched TMO replays before agreeing that while Matawalu was provoked, he deserved a yellow card for retaliation.
‘It was tough,’ said Townsend, ‘and there were a few times Leinster infringed — like Tommy Seymour tackled off the ball going for the winning try — and the assistants did nothing.
‘But what we have to learn is that we don’t react to provocation. That was a critical time in the game because the momentum was starting to come back to us.’
Two Leinster tries seemingly left Glasgow dead and buried, but the Scots rallied superbly, Henry Pyrgos and Josh Strauss at the heart of everything. Glenn Bryce finished off a try and Horne converted to square a pulsating match.
Glasgow have faltered in recent years, so the big test of Townsend’s ability to heighten Scottish skills while eradicating weakness remains. But, being in control of the title’s destiny with just four games to go is novel and owes much to a club ethos, developed by the likes of Sean Lineen, Shade Munro and Alastair Kellock over the past decade, being taken to a new level by Townsend.