GLASGOW Warriors hope a visit from Gordon Strachan will help inspire them to victory tonight against Zebre - a result that would take them closer to their goal of a home PRO12 semi-final. The Scotland manager called in to Scotstoun yesterday and entertained the squad with some anecdotes about his life as a football player and manager, as well as offering some more serious advice about how to keep a winning culture within a team.
“Gordon had us in stitches with stories that you definitely cannot tell anyone else,” Gregor Townsend, the Warriors’ head coach, said. “But really good inspirational stories about what made Aberdeen and Leeds tick, what he believes these guys are working for - which is the memories of being together in those special moments, not necessarily the medals and the trophies.
“He stressed working together, winning together, having a good time together. It was excellent.”
Townsend has always believed that rugby can learn from other sports, and he was particularly interested in Strachan’s assessment of Sir Alex Ferguson, his former boss from his playing days. “I got a real insight into Alex Ferguson, which obviously can’t be repeated here.
“[And I got] an insight into why the Leeds environment was different, his thoughts on modern-day football coaching, how it’s different coaching at club and international level. It’s great to model to our players that we want to learn from other sports, to show that we’re a learning organisation, but also there were specific things that we got today.”
Rob Harley, who will captain the team at Scotstoun this evening, agreed with Townsend that the meeting with Strachan had been valuable. “Firstly it was good because he was very funny with how he was answering the questions and some of the stories he was telling,” the forward said.
“But the main thing from a playing perspective was how he felt they built success in their teams. The culture of the club drove the standards and everyone was trying to improve and they had that ethos of building a winning environment - and I thought that was very applicable to what we are trying to do here.”
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