Warriors feeling the heat ahead of Exeter crunch
GLASGOW WARRIORS head coach Dave Rennie admits his side are ‘under a bit of heat’ heading into their Heineken Champions Cup match against Exeter Chiefs. And the Kiwi accepts the match at a sold-out Scotstoun is must-win, otherwise his team have no chance of making the knock-out stage of the competition. They may be in second place in Pool Two but are still a massive ten points behind Exeter. With only one automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals, nothing but a victory will do. After watching his side warm-up for the visit of Exeter with a 38-19 victory away to Benetton, Rennie said: ‘Exeter are one of the best sides in Europe, aren’t they? We had a good look at their game against Saracens last week, where I thought, defensively, they were phenomenal. ‘We’re going to throw everything at it. Obviously our loss to La Rochelle at home in Europe has put us under a bit of heat. We’ve got no option but to win.’ Glasgow are set to have full-back
Tommy Seymour back fit after he missed the bonus-point Guinness Pro14 win over the Italians with concussion. Centre Nick Grigg, who was left unconscious after a clash of heads during the game and received hospital treatment, is highly unlikely to be available. He was released to fly home with the rest of the squad and is on the mend but will still have to pass his return-to-play protocols. The six-try victory over the Italians with a second-string side is just the boost Glasgow needed after some poor league results. They are now third in Conference A after five wins and five defeats. ‘We’ve played a lot of good stuff over the last month or so, but we maybe haven’t been clinical enough when it mattered,’ said Rennie. ‘We were a lot better against Benetton. We had to defend, they asked a lot of questions, but I thought we looked after the ball well and it was good to finish as strong as we did.’