JOB done in the PRO12, Gregor Townsend could afford to turn his attention to the bigger challenge to come next week in the European Champions Cup when his side take on Munster with a breakthrough place in the quarter finals at stake.
The Warriors head coach could be satisfied with the performance against Cardiff Blues, but knows they are going to have to go up a gear if they are to win next week.
“It was a positive display given the conditions and the quality of the opposition,” he said. “If we have as much ball as that against Munster, we will be happy. We got the chance to do a lot of line-out drives and most of them did well.
“Munster play a different kind of rugby and have been in fantastic form this year, as they showed earlier in the afternoon. They kick more than Cardiff, so we will have a different challenge next week. A quarter-final place is at stake, so we will have to play really well.
“It was really important to keep the momentum against Cardiff. We have picked up 14 points from the last three games, which was needed because we had not picked up many in November.”
Looking to next week, the key part of the win against Cardiff was the proof that they have genuine options, particularly up front. “We had Adam Ashe, who was very good when he came on, and Rob Harley, who has been a one of our key players, both on the bench. That shows the depth we have,” said Townsend.
Nobody illustrated that better than Peter Murchie, whose appearances at full-back have been restricted by the form of Stuart Hogg and a mid-season injury. Not only did he score two of the tries, but he was impressively secure at the back on a wet night. “Peter has played really well when he has been available. He was injured early in the season in training and has worked very hard and came back in last week. That first try epitomised what he is about, his unselfish support running, going really low to clear contact and ending out getting the ball,” said Townsend.
Despite being pegged back to 10-10 early in the second half, Glasgow still had the wherewithal to come away with a scoring bonus point against a side crammed with Wales internationals.
“A little blip either side of half time and and with the weather deteriorating, I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to move the ball and put people into space,” Townsend noted.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel