A score having been emphatically settled with the neighbours, Dave Rennie could not wait to get preparations started for the Pro14 play-offs which will include an extra warm-up fixture as he seeks to ensure that there is no danger of his Glasgow Warriors being as under-prepared as they looked the same time last year.
Just as last year, they have secured a home semi-final, but there is already a very different feel to things, Saturday’s 34-10 defeat of Edinburgh having been their eighth Pro14 victory in a row as they have fended off Munster’s challenge for top spot in Conference A.
What seems certain to be a meeting with the Ospreys, perhaps played in the north-west of England on Tuesday of next week as the Welsh region readies itself for a play-off with the Scarlets for the last available Champions Cup spot, is consequently just a way of ensuring there is no danger of losing momentum ahead of that visit to Scotstoun of Ulster or Connacht that will decide who goes to Celtic Park for the Pro14 Grand Final.
“We are trying to get a hit out against a team in a couple of Tuesdays’ time which would then give us about 12 days to cover,” Rennie explained. “We have spoken to a team who won today so it could be an option.”
While the comprehensive nature of this derby win made a start to addressing the questions that have been raised by Glasgow’s failures in derbies, in Champions Cup ties and in play-off matches against those Pro14 sides that have proven themselves in European competition, Rennie accepted that there remained some cause for concern in the limited amount of possession they had to work with.
Against that, he noted that they had neutralised Edinburgh’s pack power with several of their own best forwards missing, Jonny Gray having succumbed to illness just ahead of the game to join co-captain Callum Gibbins and his fellow import Oli Kebble on the sidelines.
The tone had been set by a fine finish from Sam Johnson after Niko Matawalu had given him room to manoeuvre on the left wing, the footwork that so nearly brought Scotland a first win at Twickenham in 36 years again in evidence as he stepped past former team-mate Henry Pyrgos on his way to the line and the Scotland centre naturally spoke of confidence being high in the camp as they head into the knockout matches.
“I think the way we’ve playing and the mood around the camp this last few weeks just showed on the park,” he said.“We’ve been building to this and it was a really good win. We had to be up for it. We’d been embarrassed by Edinburgh and they’d been playing some really good rugby around Christmas time. They ended up winning the 1872 Cup which was a goal of ours, but we’re in good shape heading into the play-offs.”
More than the derby victory, the belief has been generated by the way they have kept winning to defy Munster’s bid to top the Conference, the squad having, he contended, responded in the right way to what his coach had described as “the Saracens debacle.”
“I always go back to that quarter-final against Saracens we were embarrassed that day by them. It showed what we needed to do and where we need to be to try to play the semi-final here,” said Johnson. “We’re all enjoying coming to work. This time of year especially you can all be getting a bit annoyed with each other but everyone is really enjoying each other’s company this year and we’re trying to make the most it.
“Last year we were embarrassed again, bigger games we didn’t come to the mark so we’re have to go again. We’re in Glasgow the rest of the way now.”
If there was a recurring theme to his descriptions of the way Glasgow’s trophy bids have ended over the past year or so, the contrast with the way in which Scottish players and coaches have sought to extract pride and satisfaction from failures over recent years seemed healthy and they now know they have a real chance of ending the season in style, by winning a title in their home city.
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