Invocation of the spirit of the Battle of Bannockburn was once a standard feature of Scottish sport, but it has gone out of fashion in recent times with homegrown coaches perhaps fearful of being seen as politicking.
There were apparently no such concerns for Dave Rennie, the New Zealander who is now coaching in Glasgow , though, as he sought to inspire his men ahead of a series of with sporting heroism of an exceptional order is going to be required if his Warriors are to overcome the odds, first in these back-to-back encounters with Montpellier tonight and next weekend and thereafter by winning their return matches with the Leinster and Exeter Chiefs teams that have already beaten them in the European Champions Cup since four wins are now the minimum requirement.
“We did it for a few reasons,” said Rennie. “We’ve put a lot of focus into culture and we want to make sure we are connecting with our communities and our history. Obviously, Stirling has a massive history in this region.”
The timing was all the more important as what have effectively been two separate groups came back together, those who have been on international duty and their colleagues who have maintained this season’s unbeaten Pro14 run.
“Part of it was that we had guys all over the place and it was a good way of reuniting the squad,” he said. “You’ve got the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Bannockburn and Stirling Castle, there is just so much great history there that we can tap into. We had a great day up there on Sunday and we will feed off that for a number of weeks.”
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