IT IS going to be tough, but Matt Taylor, the Glasgow Warriors defence coach, feels his players are ready to put the traumas of last weekend behind them and turn in a memorable performance when their European Champions Cup campaign gets under way against Northampton Saints on Saturday.
With the Paris atrocities forcing last weekend's match to be called off, the players are ready now ready to release some of their pent-up energy. "We had a training session on Saturday when we didn't have the game and we did a couple of the moves we want to do against Northampton," he revealed. "As professional coaches, you're always working one week ahead in your preparations, so the coaches had met in the morning and talked through what we were going to do.
"Then earlier this week we had one of the best training sessions we've had since I've been here. Hopefully, that puts us in good stead for the weekend. The guys were really up and aggressive and intense. It was great.
"They are a very good team. They are well coached and they won’t be complacent. In saying that, I think we've played three [English] Premiership teams over the last three years, all of them in the top four, and we did well. We are looking forward to it."
Fortunately, they had already worked out that many of the tactics prepared for Racing 92 last week, will work just as well against the English – both teams have giant packs that try to bully their way to victory. "Racing have probably played more off the back of the scrum, whereas Northampton might play more with power, but it has been very similar. It would have been more difficult with two very different teams. A lot of the preparation we did last week has suited this game coming up."|
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 here