ON Friday night, Danny Wilson exhibited the resigned demeanour of a man who realises that if anything can go wrong for his Glasgow Warriors side this season then it almost definitely will.

The latest setback had been just a few minutes earlier when his team’s 1872 Cup second-leg clash against Edinburgh was called off less than 30 minutes before kick-off due to a frozen pitch at Scotstoun.

After a demoralising defeat to the same opposition six days earlier in the first leg of the inter-city series, Warriors were clearly desperate to exorcise a few demons – hence the lateness of the postponement.

Wilson was set to give youngsters Ross Thompson and Rufus McLean their first starts, and there was a quiet buzz of anticipation in the west about a significantly improved performance being on the cards back on home territory.

But it was not to be, and to compound matters there were murmurings about next week’s game away to Lyon in the Champions Cup being in doubt, with French clubs on the precipice of withdrawing from the next two rounds of European competition due to a government ban on cross-border elite sport.

If that Lyon game does not go ahead, it will be the fifth Warriors match postponed or cancelled this season due to either Covid or extreme weather.

Confirmation of French plans were expected yesterday morning but nothing official was forthcoming throughout the day, leaving Wilson and his Warriors team – as well as Richard Cockerill and his Edinburgh side – in a state of limbo.

“Our attitude is the same as it was on Friday night,” said Wilson. “We’ll prepare as if the game is going ahead until we hear otherwise.

“Come Monday, we’ll train and prepare for Lyon. We’ve sat down as a coaching group and done our preview on them so we can deliver that to the players.”

It is not all doom and gloom. If the Lyon game is called off, then it would be logical to reschedule Friday’s 1872 Cup match for next weekend – which would not be a bad outcome for Wilson and his team. Especially as the coach is hopeful that his side will be boosted by Leone Nakarawa – the giant Fijian who was late back from his homeland after lockdown and was then out for three months with a knee injury – making his first appearance since last February.

“If he gets through this week’s training, he’ll be available for next weekend,” Wilson said. “He’s made massive leaps in the last couple of weeks and trained fully with us in the last week. It’s not 100 per cent certain yet, because he’s still got to get through the second stage of contact stuff after doing the first stage this week, but if he gets through that, we should be able to get him out there in some way, shape or form. There’s still a risk attached to it, but hopefully it’s positive.”

Wilson also indicated that he aims to stick with his plan of giving youngsters and fringe players such as Thompson and McLean valuable game time in the next few weeks.

“Some of them we’ve committed to, so they’ll play, and there are a couple of other situations too,” he said. “As an example, Lewis Bean goes back to Northampton – his loan period with us is now up – which is a real shame. When the international period kicks off again, we would need the likes of Lewis, but I don’t think we’ll have him. I’ll be trying my hardest to get him back, because he’s been important to us. But some of the boys we’d committed to for Friday night, we’ll commit to again next weekend.

“This season is probably about that now, trying to learn as many lessons as we can about as many people. I’ve got a lot of decisions to make about people I’ve inherited and the only way I can make those decisions is to get them on the field, because there’s no other rugby to watch them in.

“In a normal season, we’d have plenty of people watching Super6 games and I’d have to do that to assess whether we are giving guys contracts – but those are really tough calls this year when boys haven’t been on the field.”

Meanwhile, Wilson made positive noises about ongoing discussions to bring Duncan Weir back to Warriors next season. The stand-off left the club in 2016 to seek regular game-time at Edinburgh, and then moved to Worcester Warriors in 2018.

Now, with Adam Hastings moving to Gloucester next season, there is going to be a vacancy at No.10 – and Weir is keen to return to his hometown club.

“He’s a player I highly rate – I think he’s a very good No.10,” said Wilson. “And from the minute I took the job, I have been clear that stand-off is a position I’ve wanted to strengthen. When I can I’ll update you a bit more.”