With matches against four play-off contenders to come, Gregor Townsend refuses to look too far into future

Senior Sports Writer

Friday 22 March 2013

Players and supporters may have their sights firmly set on bringing the RaboDirect Pro12 play-offs – and even the tournament's Grand Final – to Scotland for the first time but Glasgow Warriors' head coach yesterday set about managing expectations.

Glasgow will be looking to build on the excellent form they showed at home against Ulster. Picture: Craig Watson/SNS

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Kevin Ferrie

Having reached the Pro12 semi-finals in two of the past three years, the Warriors' ascent to the top of the table with a record run of five successive bonus-point wins during the Six Nations window, when all sides were depleted by international calls, has raised hopes they can go a step further.

Yet Gregor Townsend is clearly aware of the dangers inherent in such thinking. "I think the aim is to get into the play-off positions," he contended. "It's a nice advantage to have a home match but, when you get into the play-offs, it's a straight knock-out. We've always known we've got very difficult game coming up – Leinster, Munster, Scarlets, Ospreys are our next four games – and they're all trying to get in that final four, so whether we're in first or second place it would still be the same focus."A win would be a fantastic achievement but also very important to our standing in the league. Obviously, Edinburgh will beat Ulster this week . . . fingers crossed. There are going to be teams winning between now and the end of the season, some results that affect standings in the top four. There are a number of wins I have at the back of my mind that would probably guarantee us top four and there are teams we might be able to knock out of the top four. Leinster aren't one of them, because they are a point or two behind us and they're going to be in the mix right to the end."Townsend believes the build-up to the recent meeting with Ulster has given his men a taste of what is to come this weekend. "I think it was the back of the Dragons game when we had that great win that we had the league leaders Ulster the next week, so that certainly got a focus and now we're up against the European champions away from home. They haven't lost a home game this season, so we know how hard it's going to be, but we believe that, with what we're doing and the players we're putting out, we can win."Of course, instead of playing in front of 6000 at home, Warriors will be in a ground filled by almost three times as many supporters, almost exclusively backing the home team, the RDS having been sold out since Monday. However, he noted the timing of the fixture may have done his side a real favour given the protocols applied in Ireland governing when players can appear following international windows."It's a bit of guesswork and hearing from people that are based over there [but] I believe they won't pick the players that have been regulars for Ireland during the Six Nations," Townsend reckoned. "They have a big run of games coming up so whether they rest them against us or against Ulster next week or their European quarter-final, we know that Ireland operate similarly to us in that they can't play five or six games in a row. They've got a number of injuries but, especially in the back row and the backs, they've got real strength in depth, so they'll be a strong side."Which is something they have demonstrated emphatically in recent weeks, matching Glasgow by registering wins in every Pro12 match this year, taking their run to six in a row (Glasgow have seven), making this a meeting of the competition's two form teams."They've only dropped two points in six games so they're one of the best teams in Europe, the European champions of the last two years and they play a game of rugby that, when they get it right, it's very tough to go up against it," said Townsend.For their part, Glasgow have had to address the absences of international back-three men Stuart Hogg and Sean Maitland, both with what are considered minor injuries, albeit the fact that Ryan Grant is being rested after he, like them, started all Scotland's Six Nations matches suggests they might have been left out anyway.Al Kellock, the club captain, Dougie Hall, Rob Harley, Moray Low and Duncan Weir, all of whom played significant parts in the Six Nations campaign, all start in Dublin, while it is a measure of this squad's extraordinary overall strength that James Eddie is the only player on the bench who has not been involved in a Scotland match-day 23 this season.

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With matches against four play-off contenders to come, Gregor Townsend refuses to look too far into future

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