Rugby city: Glasgow politicians give their vote to Warriors

Senior Sports Writer

Wednesday 22 August 2012

The choice of Glasgow to host yesterday's RaboDirect Pro12 launch reflects the rise in status of the city's professional team within the European game, according to Al Kellock, the Warriors captain.

RaboDirect Pro12 players launch the new season at the Riverside Museum: (from left): Rob McCusker (Scarlets), Antonio Pavanello (Benetton Treviso), Leo Cullen (Leinster), Lewis Evans (Newport), Marco Bortolami ( Zebre), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Gavin Duffy (Connacht), Andries Pretorius (Cardiff), Paul O'Connell (Munster), Johannes Muller (Ulster) and Al Kellock (Glasgow). Picture: Jeff Holmes/SNS

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Kevin Ferrie

In seven seasons in the job, he has jetted all over the British Isles for events to mark the start of both this competition and the Heineken Cup, so he was delighted that this time around he was the one welcoming his fellow captains.

The launch was held in the trendy Riverside Museum in association with Glasgow Council, who had also put on a dinner for the various players, coaches and officials from the Pro12's clubs at the City Chambers the previous evening in an attempt to ensure the city was seen in its best light.However, the Warriors had already played their part in the selection of venue by reaching the play-off semi-finals for the second time in three years last season and, as they prepare to play their first matches at their new council-owned home at Scotstoun Stadium, Kellock drew encouragement from the way politicians now seem to be supporting the city's team."I thought about that yesterday, that it's great to have this event here, but actually being here today and hearing city councillors speaking about the backing they want to give us and that everybody's looking to build rugby in Glasgow is great to hear from voices we've not heard it from before," he said. "We've been saying it for the last seven years, but to hear it from people like that is fantastic. "There's been a bit of rain as usual, but I think everyone's impressed with the venue."Kellock was among the Scotland players who were given extra time off after their summer tour as their colleagues started their pre-season work. The Glasgow captain is hoping to be fully fit to lead them into their opener against Ulster next week and if not then when they play that first match at Scotstoun against Llanelli's Scarlets the following weekend.However, he has had more than enough time with the squad to run the rule over them and he is very confident about the personnel. "I believe as a squad we're the strongest we've been since I've been involved, which has to do with the fact that our budgets have been increased as well," he said. "So you can see that in tangible terms with the players, the fact that at training there's more competition and seeing some of the new guys performing in the pre-season games and showing the quality they have."Last year was built very much on the fact that our squad was stronger than it had been before and it will be exactly the same again this year. If we need to chop and change and move guys around because of injuries we're in a good place for that."Curiously, Glasgow's opener pits them against another team where a new head coach is under extreme pressure, since Mark Anscombe, like Gregor Townsend who has replaced Sean Lineen, has been put in charge of a team that had its most successful season in many years when his predecessor, Brian McLaughlin, guided them to the Heineken Cup final.Anscombe was willing to place that in context yesterday. He acknowledged that, because his team's last outing came in European club and provincial rugby's biggest match, there is a demand on his men to perform from the outset this season."There is huge momentum to be generated from the first game because it's at home and the team's last match was the Heineken Cup final so expectations of supporters are going to be high, as they should be," he said.The corollary of that is, for the first week Glasgow have a little leeway since they are away from home, but Kellock accepted that it is reasonable for his men to be expected to improve on last season's efforts in the long game. "You need to improve every year and we said that three years ago after we got to the semi-final then had a disappointing year," he noted. "There's reasons and excuses for that year, but we need to learn lessons from that and make sure we use the momentum from last season and push on. Every other team is looking to improve on their position apart from [champions] Ospreys, so it will be incredibly hard, but we're in a good place to do it."

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Rugby city: Glasgow politicians give their vote to Warriors

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