GLASGOW have no intention of pushing the panic button just because their long unbeaten run has come to an end, assistant coach Nigel Carolan has insisted.
The 35-24 loss to the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday followed a sequence of 10 games without defeat, but it still left the Warriors in fourth place in the URC table. And if they hold on to or improve upon that position they will have a home quarter-final in the play-offs - something that Carolan believes is still well within their grasp.
“We’ll dust ourselves down,” he said yesterday. “We know that nothing is broken. Any fixes that need to be made are very small.
“We’ve got four games left, three of them are at home, all against teams who are below us in the table. It’s in our hands. I don’t know if winning three out of four games will give us a home quarter-final - that might depend upon how other results go. But it starts this Friday with Zebre.
“We’ve just got to focus on what has got us to this point in the table and why we’re currently sitting on fourth. We’ve worked bloody hard to get there and the hard work is really only starting now.”
The Warriors have yet to be told which players will be released by Scotland for the home game against the Italians, but as this is a fallow week in the Six Nations it is possible that they will get several who have either not featured so far in this year’s Championship or who need more game time in order to stay match fit.
Scrum-half George Horne is one strong possibility after his omission from the 23 that faced France, while full-back Ollie Smith, hooker Fraser Brown and loosehead prop Jamie Bhatti are other contenders.
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