NEW Glasgow coach Franco Smith is confident that the Warriors can quickly get over the disappointments of last season and start to be serious contenders in the United Rugby Championship again. Speaking at Scotstoun yesterday at his first press conference since his appointment was announced earlier this week, Smith said the team not only wanted to return swiftly to winning ways, but also to become “the heroes that Glasgow needs”.
A below-par 2021/22 campaign for the Warriors ended in June with the humiliating 76-14 URC quarter-final defeat by Leinster, a result which cost Smith’s predecessor Danny Wilson his job. However, former Springboks international Smith is convinced that the Dublin result and other low points of the past year or so are not true reflections of the talent in the squad. And, while a modest improvement should be easy enough to achieve, he insisted he would not be content with such half measures.
