Festive spirit in full swing for Franco
Family Christmas adds to 1872 delight
AFTER watching his team claim victory in the first leg of the 1872 Cup on Friday night, Glasgow Warriors boss Franco Smith felt a slight lump in the back of his throat. Normally a fairly serious and stern operator, Smith doesn’t strike you as the type to be overcome by emotion very often. Even at this time of year, he’s more Scrooge than Santa Claus.
But something clearly got to him as he took his seat to speak to reporters in the aftermath of his team’s 22-10 win over rivals Edinburgh.
Smith was full of the festive cheer, as evidenced by the fact he wore a Christmas jumper emblazoned with the words ‘Ho, Ho, Ho’ to conduct his post-match media duties.
The Warriors boss gave a little insight into his family life ahead of what will be a very special day in the Smith household.
Smith normally lives on his own, but his wife Tania and daughter Cara have flown over from South Africa to spend Christmas with him.
His sons Franco Jnr and Jean, both professional rugby players in their own right, will also be part of the big day via a video call.
Clearly, it means a lot to the Glasgow head coach — and victory on Friday night tasted that little bit sweeter given that he was able to celebrate with his loved ones.
‘You’re going to bring me to tears now,’ said Smith, clearly welling up when asked how he planned to spend Christmas.
‘It’s fantastic because I have my wife and daughter here. They are only here for short parts of the year.
‘We’ll have our Christmas dinner and spend time with each other, and I’ll get my boys on the video call and make sure we spend enough time with them.
‘I think we’ve spent only five minutes together all year as a family and that was after my boy (Jean) played in the Under20 game against Georgia.
‘We got to see each other for five minutes and we took a Christmas photo — and that was in June! ‘My wife and daughter are here now and they’re here until January 11, so it’s fantastic to have them and have a win in this period as well.’
Glasgow were far from their best against Edinburgh but were able to grind out a gutsy victory which sent them top of the United Rugby Championship table. The second half, in particular, typified why they have become such a difficult unit to stop under Smith. Even though Glasgow had some issues in the line-out, they stuck to their guns and kept kicking for the corners. Eventually the maul clicked into gear, with replacement hooker Johnny Matthews crossing for his customary try.
Ally Miller made the result safe towards the end, but Smith praised his players for the bravery they showed towards the end of the game.
‘The result was fantastic,’ he said. ‘It would have been the perfect evening if we could have managed to get the last one over the line (for a bonus point).
‘I’m really proud of the guys sticking to their process. It would be so tempting after 60 minutes to kick at goal and try to take the easy way.
‘We didn’t have enough attacking platforms and we couldn’t put our stamp on the game during the first part.
‘It’s not always about the line-out drive but to stay up there and keep on knocking on the door until it opens needs a special bravery.
‘The whole world would have been shouting at us to kick at goal but Edinburgh end up getting a yellow card (for lock Grant Gilchrist) and it all changes.
‘We end up with two tries instead of one, and it sets you up for the chance of a third as it suddenly all opens up.
‘If we’d kicked those points in the 60th minute, we’d have had to defend them like we had been doing and, if we’d made one error, then they could have taken the lead again.
‘So having the bravery to stick to it was fantastic. It was a really good win for us in the end.’
Glasgow now take a fairly healthy lead into next weekend’s second leg, which will be played in front of more than 30,000 fans at Murrayfield.
He expects it to be a better spectacle than Friday night, where the wet and windy conditions played a huge part.
He warned his players that the 1872 Cup is far from a done deal just yet, insisting that he wants to see even more improvement next week.
‘We need to be good next week at what we do,’ added Smith. ‘I think there was enough for us this week.
‘I hope the weather plays its part next week because we’ve had a couple of wet evenings here which limited us.
‘It can be frustrating and we kicked a little bit more than we should but the weather was bad.
‘Now we have got to go to Murrayfield and we need to be better if we want to be involved in the business end of the competition.
‘I think everyone involved can be proud if that number goes to 30,000 supporters next week. It’s a great compliment to Scottish rugby at the moment.
‘Edinburgh are competitive, they’re up there, we’re up there, and both teams are playing a brand of rugby that everyone wants to see.’