Richie Gray believes that the key to Glasgow Warriors breaking their miserable sequence of six away defeats on the bounce when they visit the Ospreys this Saturday is to play with the same devil-may-care ambition as they exhibited when beating Cardiff at home last weekend.
Warriors have not won on the road since beating Newcastle Falcons in the Challenge Cup in mid-April and managed just three wins on enemy territory over the course of all of last season.
This weekend offers a golden opportunity to end that six-match losing streak in competitive matches away from Scotstoun, against a side who are still winless in the URC this season. However, Ospreys will be no pushovers, having drawn their first game of the campaign away at the Scarlets before losing by a single point at home to the Emirates Lions last weekend.
“Last weekend’s game against Cardiff was a lot better by us because we played with a lot of pace in attack and moved the ball around,” said Gray. “We played a brand of rugby that we wanted to play.
“So, it was good, especially coming after the Benetton game the week before, which we knew was sub-standard. But it’s back to square one now, and we know our away record wasn’t great last year.
“We know this weekend is going to be a big challenge for us to go away from home and produce a performance against the Ospreys. They took a tough defeat as well last weekend, so they’ll be hurting from that.
“It’ll be a good challenge for us to try and go there and get a result because it’ll show where we’re at.
“The mentality is that we need to go and play some good rugby. We can’t just sit back and go into our shells.
“And we need to be prepared to defend. That’s part of the game now. It’s always tough away from home, but it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to.
“The league is wide open this year,” he added. “There’s been a lot of tight games so far and a few results which have maybe surprised some people.
“That’s good because it makes for a more exciting league and a better spectacle for everyone, but it means that every team has to be at the top of their game every week, so we know we can’t relax after one good performance last week.”
