Glasgow Warriors are anticipating a physical pounding when Montpellier visit Scotstoun on Friday, but ahead of it will come a form of rugby poker as they try to gain the upper hand in the mind games.
Few opposition bosses could know more about how to beat a team that has proven invincible in the domestic Pro14 this season than Vern Cotter, just a few months after he left his previous post as Scotland coach, where he was working with most of the Glasgow squad.
In many cases he played a major part in their careers, not least Ali Price to whom he gave a Scotland debut against Georgia a year ago, but as the scrum-half noted, it works both ways.
“Obviously we’ve got Jase O’Halloran and Jon Humphreys (Glasgow’s assistant coaches who previously worked with Cotter at Murrayfield) with us and they’ll obviously have their ideas as to how they think Vern’s going to approach it,” he noted. “It might be a case of trying to double bluff each other and all the rest of it, so I think it’ll be quite interesting.”
Not that it is too tough to work out how the two sides are likely to approach the match, as Price noted.
“Every team in France plays the one out runners and try to smash you,” he said. “I can’t see them drastically changing. There’ll be a few things, but then again we might have a few things, slightly different that they’ve not seen.”
Glasgow must secure bonus points as well as winning both matches to have any chance of qualifying for Europe’s knockout stages, however the way both club and country have been performing of late gives them reason to believe they can do it.
“The team’s been going well the last three games in the league, we’ve scored 40 odd points I think, we’ve got tries in us,” said Price. “Montpellier, have a lot of big men so if I was them I’d be thinking they’re going to try to run us off our feet here. We’re an agile quick side and I think that’s a massive strength of ours, especially against a team of bigger men, so I definitely think it’s doable.”
Price revelled in what he reckoned was the best atmosphere he has experienced at Murrayfield during November, starting all three Tests as Scotland registered 16 tries against Samoa, the All Blacks and the Wallabies. That run that has taken them back to their best ever world ranking of fifth and he believes there is better to come.
“We’re a confident bunch, but we know the Six Nations is coming up and that’s going to be even tougher than the autumn there,” he acknowledged.
“All the home nations are going pretty well; France you never know; and Italy are good on their day, so that’s going to be a real test of where we’re at. Fifth in the world, yeah, we’ve had some good results, but we can get better. In all the performances we’ve shown that there’s places we can get better… but we’re not going into any game now thinking that if we play well we might just nick it. If we play well we’re going to win these games well and I think that’s a good thing.”
Before that he is relishing the prospect of returning to club duty.
“Scotstoun for me is an equally good place to play,” said Price. “I love it when the crowd gets behind us there and everyone at the club is playing with confidence, whether internationally or in the league.”
The way Glasgow are playing and the response they are getting from the stands were among the reasons that Price signed a new two year deal with the club last week, but the English-born 24-year-old whose rapid emergence into the spotlight last year meant he had other options available when the time came to negotiate a new deal, now feels very much at home in Glasgow.
“There are lots of things,” he replied. “The supporters, I love the city, the coaching staff. I aspire to continue to develop with the national team as well. That’s a big goal of mine. There’s loads of reasons as to why I wanted to stay. There was a bit of interest (from elsewhere), but Glasgow knew and I knew I wanted to stay.”
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