When George Turner was selected for his first Glasgow start of the season last weekend, his eyes must have lit up at the thought of his name being read out repeatedly by the Scotstoun stadium announcer.
After all, it seemed like Johnny Matthews, his fellow hooker, only needed to plop himself on the back of any Warriors maul drive to land try after try after try.
And then against Benetton something strange happened – Glasgow scored all their tries from open play, with Josh McKay, Kyle Rowe, Sebastian Cancelliere and George Horne all diving over the line to round off slick passing moves.
Turner, out of his sick bed to make his first post-World Cup appearance, could scarcely believe what was going on.
“Yeah, I had a feeling that was going to happen,” he said with a smile. “Johnny’s been getting tries aplenty from the maul and I come back in and the maul just doesn’t work!
“Benetton probably played it quite smart. They didn’t give us many penalties or opportunities to maul down at their end but maybe they focused too heavily on that maul defence and left gaps out wide.
“It was a bit scrappy but we played well and managed to get those tries with some Seba magic. He managed to get through a few gaps and create some stuff, it was good.”
Knowing that Glasgow are likely to drive for the line is one thing but stopping it is another. So, why do Franco Smith’s men get such joy from the maul drive?
“To be honest, and Johnny would probably say this as well, we [the hookers] don’t do much,” added Turner. “We sit at the back and hold on while everyone else does the pushing.
“Franco gets us to do a lot of mauls [in training]. Everyone does a lot of mauls but we do a lot every week and everyone goes through detail.
“We mix it up with other plays if it’s not working. We do a lot of work on it on the pitch and if it feels the opposition is slowing us down we’ll still try to break them. It’s a good weapon.”
Ulster are the next team tasked with trying to slow down the maul tomorrow night as they aim to consign Warriors to a first regular season home URC defeat for two years.
From Glasgow’s perspective, the onus will be on to land the win first – and then push for the bonus point if possible.
“That’s what Franco’s been saying - a win’s a win but we need those bonus points and we need to stop other teams getting bonus points,” confirmed Turner. “It’s tight at the top at the moment and we’ve got another massive game against Ulster. If we can get five points and deny them getting a point it’ll be a big event in the league.
“It’s been a really good start. We’re joint top at the moment, although Franco’s not happy that we dropped a few points at Connacht away. And I think that’s the message so far: we’re doing really well but there’s a lot to improve, a lot to shore up. We can still have better performances.”
