THIS was the heaviest of the three away defeats Glasgow Warriors have suffered this season, but it was against easily the classiest opposition, so veteran back-row Ryan Wilson – a late call-up to the starting XV when Matt Fagerson fell ill on Saturday morning – believes that the team can use the experience as a catalyst to achieving that long-awaited win on the road.
It is now nine league games since the Warriors won away from home, a miserable run stretching back to Connacht in January which needs to be brought to an end soon if the team’s potential is to be reflected in their league standing at the business end of the campaign.
Saturday’s 40-12 loss in Durban leaves them ranked 12th in the United Rugby Championship table, having finished eighth last season. Progress needs to be tangibly measurable otherwise it is just an abstract concept. The Franco Smith revolution was never going to be achieved overnight, but a record of just two wins from five games played is not good enough.
In their previous two away matches in this campaign, Glasgow were undercooked and did not get off the plane when they succumbed 33-11 to Benetton in round one, and they showed flashes of what they might be capable of but were still far too malleable when they went down 32-17 to the Ospreys in round three.
Saturday’s result was disappointing off the back of an impressive home win over the Bulls seven days earlier, but it should be recognised that – unlike the Benetton and the Ospreys matches – this was a game against a squad packed with international stars and World Cup winners which Glasgow had no right to expect to win.
That said, Wilson believes the key to Warriors bouncing back against the Lions in Johannesburg this week is that the squad do not see themselves as the poor relations in this sort of company.
“There is a lot of hype around this team with the likes of Eben Etzebeth h in the second row and the star-studded bench that came on and showed their worth in the last half hour, but we went out there with a lot of belief,” he said.
“We talked all week about bringing the intensity we had against the Bulls to this game, and we showed that in the first 30 minutes. The mid-section was okay, but it just got away from us in the last 20, which was frustrating.
“But there were a few injuries, a lot of chopping and changing, and we weren’t as clinical as we would have liked to be when we knew we had to be bang on the money against a Sharks side which was always going to finish strongly.
“It is frustrating because we had a bloody good squad going into the game, even with the illnesses [to Fagerson and Argentinian winger Sebastian Cancelliere], so we do feel we should come to places like this looking for a win.
“The score-line probably reflects the bounce of the ball here or there, and a missed tackle here or there.
“If you take the way we played last week against the Bulls and the way we fronted up at times here against a really strong Sharks side at their own ground, we know that we have what it takes to turn teams over.
“So, we’ll go into the Lions game with a lot of confidence from the good things and having worked on the things that didn’t go to plan.”
One area which will be focused on is the line-out, with Warriors unable to withstand Elizabeth’s spoiling. It is usually a reliable area of strength for Glasgow and Saturday’s touchline calamities cost them dearly, with several promising positions – especially in the first half – coming to nought.
JP du Preez, the 6ft 10ins second-row recruited from Sale Sharks during the summer, could come in for his first start against the Lions, especially if established line-out leader Richie Gray fails to come through the requisite Head Injury Assessment protocols following his 45th-minute departure on Saturday.
Another big selection call will be at scrum-half. Ali Price is Scotland’s first choice and a recent Lions Test starter, but George Horne’s pace and unfaltering attacking instincts appear to be more in line with the way Warriors want to play under Smith.
That decision could be taken out of the Glasgow coaching team’s hands because national head coach Gregor Townsend names his training squad for the Autumn Tests on Wednesday and those Warriors involved could well be flown home early to start preparation for the Australia Test on October 29.
