GLASGOW Warriors will return to work this morning with Saturday’s celebrations firmly behind them. The 23-14 victory over Racing 92 in Paris was a remarkable achievement - in fact, one of the best in the history of the team - but they know it could count for nothing in terms of Champions Cup qualification if they fail to maintain the high standards they set for themselves at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir.
Having beaten Leicester then lost to Munster before their weekend triumph, Gregor Townsend’s squad now have two wins from three in Pool One. Leicester, who were thrashed 38-0 by Munster at the weekend, look out of the running, while the Irish side top the pool with maximum points after their two games; they have played a match less than Leicester and Glasgow as their tie with Racing was postponed because of the death of their head coach, Anthony Foley. Racing, last year’s runners-up and French Top 14 champions, have lost two out of two and will also find it extremely tough to qualify for the quarter-finals either as pool winners or as one of the three best runners-up from the five pools.
Having said that, there is no way that teams of the calibre of Racing and Leicester can be dismissed as makeweights or whipping boys. No matter if their own hopes have dwindled, they are still perfectly capable of damaging the chances of the two other teams, beginning on Friday when they visit Scotstoun.
Hence the reason why Townsend’s pride and pleasure at his players’ performance was tempered by some words of caution. “The [Pro12] final was great, but this is probably second to that,” he said after the match on Saturday when asked how highly the result ranked. “The Bath win was probably the best win we’ve played attack-wise. Here, to go away from home against a top team - and they had their strongest team out there - makes me very proud.
“We have to back it up,” he continued. “We have to get through these two games. Coming home with four points is great, but if we can get two wins we would be in a good position for the last two games.
“Munster have been on fire for the past six or seven weeks and they’ll be really tough opponents. Racing are French champions and European runners-up, and they still have four games left. They’ve lost two, but have four left and they will throw everything at us [on Friday].”
After three straight defeats in the league, while many of their first-choice players were away on international duty, the Warriors’ strongest side hit top form on their first time back together - a feat of cohesion that they have not always found easy on the past. And they did it after an opening spell to the game in which Racing, with World Cup winner Dan Carter pulling the strings, threw everything at their visitors.
Even when the French side went 7-0 up through a Juan Imhoff try and Carter conversion, however, it seemed clear that they were trying too hard too soon. Racing have long had a reputation for champagne rugby, but they traditionally leave the really exuberant stuff until the hard work has been done, whereas here they were throwing passes behind their backs and doing everything possible to keep a phase alive when going to ground and regrouping would have been more sensible. It was as if, after some poor results of their own in the league, they thought they could simply will themselves back into top form.
Glasgow, by contrast, played a far more measured game. They remained composed in the face of that early onslaught, chipped away at Racing’s lead with two penalties from Finn Russell, and then went ahead after the stand-off put Alex Dunbar in for a try with an ingenious pass.
Russell’s conversion made the half-time score 7-13, then crucially, the Warriors began the second half at the high tempo with which Racing had started the first. The strategy soon paid off when scrum-half Ali Price spotted a gap from a metre or two out and sped through it to touch down against the base of the post.
Russell converted that try, and added three more points with a third penalty on the hour. That left Racing needing at least three scores to get back in front, and they got one of them when Carter showed one of his old touches of brilliance by slaloming his way through the defence. They would have got another too - one with which a few minutes left would have given them the chance to pull off a dramatic late comeback -- but substitute Alex Allan put in a try-saving tackle on Wenceslas Lauret and the opportunity was gone.
Remarkably for such a demanding game, Simone Favaro was the only immediate injury concern, but the Italian, who was outstanding at the breakdown, should get over his sore shoulder in time to play on Friday. The winning changing room is usually a raucous place after a match, but this time the Warriors ensured there was also time for some calm reflection. They know that, as Townsend said, they cannot allow this result to stand in splendid isolation: they need to back it up.
“Just normal - a wee song and a chat,” the coach added when asked what had been said or done in the dressing room. “[But] this is different, because we play the same team next week, so there were key points that the players were coming up with - things we have to improve.”
Scorers: Racing: Tries: Imhoff, Carter. Cons: Carter 2.
Glasgow: Tries: Dunbar, Price. Cons: Russell 2. Pens: Russell 3.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here