Townsend hails ‘greatest-ever’ win
GLASGOW WARRIORS head coach Gregor Townsend last night praised his players for the way they secured their greatest-ever European win against Racing 92 in France.
Townsend said he was delighted at the level of performance from his team, who dominated the European Rugby Champions Cup Pool One clash for all but the first 10 minutes and ran out 23-14 winners.
‘That is our best in Europe definitely, by a long way,’ said the Warriors head coach. ‘That win against such a top side is great for the confidence of the group.
‘That display showed they can play against one of the best teams in Europe away from home and win.
‘Remember, this was a win over the current French champions who got to the European Champions Cup final last year. Yet we came here and I felt played some superb rugby and deserved to win.
‘I am very proud of the players who didn’t let me or anybody down from first whistle to last. We deserved to go in at half-time ahead and in the second half we were also excellent. We were also patient and never lost our discipline.’
Although Townsend was delighted at the win, he has called on his players to put in yet another topclass performance when they play Racing 92 at home on Friday.
‘They will come to Scotstoun hurting and they are a top-class team that will want to beat us next time out,’ said the Warriors head coach.
‘That win in Paris was big for us, but it doesn’t mean we’re in the quarter-finals as we have to play the same in a week’s time and maybe we’re going to have to be even better.
‘They will come knowing they probably have to win to stay in the competition, so they will throw everything at us.’
Townsend singled out fly-half Finn Russell for the way he controlled the game and outplayed his opposite number, the legendary Dan Carter.
‘What a performance he put in and he controlled things really well,’ said Townsend. ‘The kicks he put over came at crucial times and he moved the ball at the right times too.
‘He set up Alex Dunbar for his try and was superb, but he wasn’t alone. A lot of people played close to their best games.
‘And I thought Alex had one of his best attacking games for us. Simone Favaro was outstanding as was Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray and Rob Harley.
‘What also pleased me was how we coped at big moments that can make or break games. Those are moments that gave us a big confidence boost.
‘Through all of that there were a lot of young guys making the right decisions against one of the best teams in the world under pressure, which was very pleasing.’ RUSSELL INSPIRES GLASGOW TO STUN FRENCH: PAGES 18-19
THE Racing 92 fans had come to the Stade Yves du Manoir expecting to watch superstars Dan Carter and Leone Nakarawa lead their team to an easy victory to help get their European Champions Cup campaign back on track.
Instead they left shell-shocked and raving about their opposite numbers Finn Russell and Jonny Gray who led Glasgow to their greatest ever European win.
Russell outplayed the legendary All Black fly-half and bossed the play so much that he was named man of the match by the French television panel who gave out the award.
The Glasgow man, who picked up a vase for his efforts, played so well that Irish rugby legend Ronan O’Gara, who is the Racing 92 assistant head coach, sought him out at the end to shake his hand and congratulate him on the way he played.
In truth, the whole Glasgow team should have won a special award, and certainly something better than a vase, for the way they performed in one of the most remarkable displays in the history of the club.
After three straight Guinness Pro12 defeats facing up to the star-studded French Top14 champions, who were also last year’s beaten European Champions Cup finalists, made Gregor Townsend’s team huge underdogs.
Apart from the first 10 minutes when Racing 92 went ahead through a Juan Imhoff try, converted by Carter, they made a mockery of that tag.
Faster, stronger, more disciplined, fitter and with much more self-belief than Racing 92, it was as near a complete performance as Glasgow have ever given, be it under Gregor Townsend or anybody else.
Vitally, they managed to keep their playmaker Carter on the back foot for most of the match and, although he scored a late consolation try, it was Russell who was the man pulling the strings.
His three penalties and two conversions laid the foundations for the famous victory as did the way he spread play to his backs at every possible opportunity.
After a blistering first 10 minutes and the Imhoff try, Racing 92 started to run out of ideas and the tide turned almost immediately.
To begin with, a couple of great runs from Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour made holes in the opposition defence, with the French side forced to defend deep for phase after phase of Glasgow attacking play.
Although they never crossed the opposition line, Glasgow’s efforts in attack were rewarded by two penalties from Russell before they took a deserved lead.
Russell was at the heart of the action, playing a superb pass on to the onrushing Alex Dunbar whose angled run split the home defence. Russell’s conversion gave Glasgow a narrow advantage that they held on to up until half-time. In past big games Glasgow have struggled to keep up a high-tempo for a full 80 minutes but that wasn’t a problem here.
They made the best possible start to the second half, scoring their second try of the match and never once took their foot off the gas.
Russell was again involved and was held up just short. When the ball was recycled, Ali Price saw a gap to dive over for a try that Russell converted.
The home side knew they were being dominated in the forwards which was why they changed their front row completely after just 53 minutes. Also taken off was former Glasgow Warriors second row Nakarawa, who had been outplayed by Jonny Gray in the line-out.
The changes nearly paid off straight away with Casey Laulala only stopped by a superb trysaving tackle from Price, who then kept calm to pass to Seymour to clear the ball into touch.
Even Carter was feeling the pressure and when he dived over a ruck, he gave away a penalty that Hogg narrowly missed from just inside his own half.
Russell put over another penalty to increase the selfbelief within the Glasgow team.
With 10 minutes left, the home side started to throw caution to the wind in a vain attempt to get back into the match.
Carter was trying every trick in the book to bring his team back into the game, throwing some risky passes out wide but for a man of his experience too many of them never went to hand.
The only time he showed any sort of magic was when he picked up the ball near the Glasgow try-line and evaded three attempted tackles before stretching to touch down.
Converting his own try created a final tense six minutes for Warriors, who managed to take the sting out of the match and never panicked.
They wandered slowly up to scrums with Henry Pyrgos taking as long as he could to put the ball in and Russell putting in some vital defensive kicks to touch.
An indication of how Glasgow had played a near perfect 80 minutes, and how fit they were, came with the way they defended near the end. A prime example was when prop Alex Allan chased down Racing’s Wenceslas Lauret to stop a try being scored in the corner.
Glasgow had the ball with the forwards in the last few minutes and when Hogg kicked the ball out at full-time, the Glasgow coaches embraced with the players collapsing to the turf after all their efforts.
For all that this was a superb win, Glasgow face Racing 92 again at Scotstoun next weekend knowing an equally top-class performance will allow them to make it back-to-back wins. Based on this display, it is well within their capabilities to beat them again.