Ali is determined not to pay Price of failure
Glasgow fans would normally see today’s game against Cardiff as a home banker.
They’ve beaten the Blues the last five times they’ve faced them including twice this season already, and the Welsh side arrive at Scotstoun on Heineken Champions Cup duty with no hope of reaching the knock-out stages.
As a result, Cardiff coach John Mulvihill has taken the opportunity to make 12 changes to his team and will field an unfamiliar XV lacking in game time.
Glasgow, in contrast, have qualification in their sights but, with the Warriors having lost their last three games, no one is taking this game for granted.
“This is a huge game for us, and on the flip side of that a team’s just as dangerous when they’ve got nothing to lose,” says Glasgow scrum-half Ali Price.
“We’ve got everything to lose in this game, we’re the ones in the position to put ourselves nearly into the knockout stages, they’re not playing for anything other than to stop our party.
“It’s not one we’re going to struggle to get up for, not one we’re taking lightly at all regardless of whether we’ve played a team twice, once or zero times this year, beaten them or lost to them.
“We’ve got to approach this with the intensity we approached the first game. They’re going to be a dangerous side regardless of whose named in their team.
“Everyone at this level can play rugby, it’s not as if they’re bringing up a team that’s not going to compete.
“As for how we turn results around, we’re not far away. People will see the results and think: ‘Disappointing’, ‘Edinburgh shut them down’, ‘They’ve got no Plan B’, ‘This happened last year’ and all this kind of stuff.
“But I think if you look at the game it comes down to little bits of accuracy, a pass here, a pass there, a missed tackle or a cheap knock-on.”
Some of the Warriors’ woes have sprung from mercurial stand-off Adam Hastings suffering a dip in form of late. Sensibly, coach Dave Rennie has taken the opportunity to remove him from the firing line this week and he starts on the bench with the even less experienced Brandon Thomson, a former South Africa Under-20 cap, partnering Price at half-back.
Does that lack of big-game experience put extra responsibility on Price, hardly a veteran at 25 but with 19 Scotland caps and 68 Glasgow games to his name?
“Yes, definitely, but that’s something I’d look to do regardless of who we had at 10. “In terms of some of the decision-making and what plays we are going to run, then I’ll work closely with Brandon but I think he has more than proved that he can step up and run a game.”