Glasgow Warriors captain Ryan Wilson has promised that they will not make the same mistake that prove costly on their last Champions Cup visit to Allianz Park when they paid their opponents too much respect.
One of only a handful of players who were in the starting line-up that day and are likely to be involved tomorrow, Wilson admitted that they had blundered tactically ahead of that quarter-final two years ago in which they were soundly beaten, 38-13.
Under new management since then, the international back-row forward suggested the main lesson they have learned is to trust in their strengths, rather than worrying too much about those of their opponents, ahead of the match that will decide which team wins Pool Three and consequently earns a home quarter-final.
“That week we changed quite a lot, which was quite strange because when you get to a quarter-final you want to try and play the way that got you there,” Wilson said of that encounter.
“It could have been that we focussed a little bit too much on them. That’s something we’ve learned from. We’ve said we want to go down there and play the game we want to play, stick to our systems and don’t change anything for them. If we get quick ball on the front foot, then we’re going to win games because we have the attacking threat. Then, on the defensive side of things, we need to make sure that we are on-point because they’ve got a dangerous attack, and they’ve got a brilliant kick-chase, so they will be looking to put pressure on us there.”
With fellow co-captain Callum Gibbins ruled out through injury, Wilson looks to have additional responsibility to ensure that message is driven home, but he insisted that his role will not change.
“It’s the same as normal,” he said. “The job remains exactly the same. Cully (Gibbins) is going to be there all week giving the boys advice and trying to do all he can to help the squad. He’s got a boot on his foot, so it won’t stop him talking to the boys and once we get on that field I’ll do the same as I do every week.”
That invariably includes being among the more provocative figures afield, but Wilson reckons it will be a case of meeting fire with fire against these opponents, the behaviour of England international Maro Itoje having caused some consternation among supporters at Scotstoun earlier in the campaign when he appeared to goad Glasgow players.
“Listen, we know that they are going to be physical and they are probably one of the worst teams for mouthing off and celebrating in your face, so we’re going to go down there and embrace it and see how we deal with it on Saturday,” he said.“I enjoy it. It almost became a bit of a joke at the end in that game here because it must have been every five minutes play stopped because of pushing and shoving, but I don’t mind it. It is part of the game. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of it from them… not from us.”
That final remark was accompanied by a typically malevolent grin from Wilson who reckons confidence can be taken from that previous meeting which saw the visitors run out 13-3 winners.
“It came down to two or three key chances that we should have taken and we didn’t, so we’ve got to be clinical when we get down there and make sure we come away with points every time we get into their 22,” he reckoned.
For all that they failed to take their chances Glasgow looked, that day, to have demonstrated that they can go toe-to-toe with Europe’s more powerful sides and while they have struggled to reproduce that physicality since, they can draw on the knowledge of having done so.
“There is no better time to ramp it back up than when you are going down to two-times champions of Europe,” said Wilson.
“We’ve been speaking about it, it is slowly coming, we’ll be ready to go.”
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