Jordan remains upbeat despite blips against Bulls
And Glasgow old boy’s proud of his men
Glasgow centre, Tom Jordan, is confident that his team are on the right track for the new season.
That’s despite showing some obvious failings in their 22-17 win over the Ayrshire Bulls on Friday night.
The semi-pro side appeared to be out of the running against the Warriors when they fell 19 points behind around the hour mark at the Caledonian Stadium in Inverness.
But two late tries briefly had the Warriors on the ropes.
Jordan, who starred for the Bulls when they became the first Super6 champions last October, accepted there was a lot for his team to work on before their second and last pre-season friendly against Ulster at Scotstoun on Friday.
But, in common with his coach Franco Smith, for whom this was the first match in charge of Glasgow, the New Zealander saw some positive signs in his team’s play.
“I think in the first half, we put together some things. But there were some little individual errors that unfolded our play a little bit,” he said.
“So we need to pick up the execution on those points.
“The second half was just a bit flat. We took our foot off the pedal and, as you could see, Ayr really picked up and ended really well.
“They put us under a lot of pressure at the end, so credit to them. We can be a lot better. First game, bit of rust – there’s a lot of workons, definitely.
“We’ve done the hard work. It’s just under those pressure moments, executing those last bits of skill, that will put us in good stead going into next week against Ulster.
“It’s our first home game back at Scotstoun, so we want to put in a performance that we’re proud of.”
Bulls coach Pat MacArthur, who was a Glasgow player for more than a decade and was also capped by Scotland, was certainly proud of the attitude shown by his team.
They had only agreed to the fixture on Wednesday night after financially-stricken Worcester pulled out.
But they acquitted themselves really well, especially in those closing 10 minutes when other semi-pro sides might well have given up the ghost on finding themselves 19 points down against professional opponents.
“I’m proud of the way the boys conducted themselves on the park,” MacArthur said.
“It was quite a quick turnaround from getting the call to play, to having a quick discussion with the senior boys, and everyone was keen as hell to come out and really test themselves.
“And I think playing against real quality teams lets you learn a lot about your boys. From one to 26, they went out there and really gave it a shot.
“We stuck to our system. We play the same way, no matter what team we’re going against. That means the forwards have got to take them on up front, the backs have got to choose their moment to go at them.
“And credit to the forwards. Against a really-experienced pack, they really stuck in there and got a great reward at the end with a maul try. And the backs took their opportunities well.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s home friendly against London Scottish had to be abandoned with just a few minutes left to play on Friday night after a fire alarm was accidentally set off.
The Exiles were 34-26 ahead at the time, and it was agreed that the result would stand.
Edinburgh now travel to Treviso on Friday for another pre-season friendly against Benetton.