Northern | US

Michael Cheika dumbfounded by Leicester Tigers loss


Players huddle - PA
Comments
2 Comments

Franco Smith praised his Glasgow players as they overwhelmed Leicester to book an Investec Champions Cup quarter-final tie away to Leinster.

ADVERTISEMENT

Warriors ran in six tries to win their first ever knockout tie in this competition, with Smith believing the margin of victory ought to have been greater.

Henco Venter and Sione Vailanu scored twice apiece with additional scores from Adam Hastings and George Horne.

Video Spacer

How will Toulouse play without Antoine Dupont? | RPTV

Boks Office are back and previewing the upcoming Investec Champions Cup. Watch the full show now on RugbyPass TV.

Watch now

Video Spacer

How will Toulouse play without Antoine Dupont? | RPTV

Boks Office are back and previewing the upcoming Investec Champions Cup. Watch the full show now on RugbyPass TV.

Smith said: “I’m obviously delighted with the result and some good rugby played but we did leave some points out there.

Related

“I think we weren’t as clinical as we may have been in the first half against the Lions a couple of weeks ago. So that is what excites me. I think we can still improve on our current performance.

“I think we came out and applied some good pressure from the restart. Our set-piece functioned. But we made full use of some of the opportunities which obviously extended the points difference on the scoreboard, which obviously created a bit of pressure onto them.

“A lot of the hard work was done in the first half, where we kept on staying in the 22 and just breaking it down.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Smith revealed hooker Johnny Matthews failed his head injury assessment because he prefers not to wear a mouthguard with the in-built technology.

He added: “It is difficult because of the gum shields that they wear. He does not wear one. So therefore, he does not qualify for the HIA process. The thing makes him feel ill.

“It’s that the mouthguards are a little bit thicker because it’s got a chip in it. So you’ve just got to get used to that, and he struggles. And I can understand that.”

Leicester head coach Michael Cheika felt almost shell-shocked by the margin of victory but pointed to his side conceding 15 penalties to seven. Glasgow’s first 31 points came against 14 men during sin-bin periods for Jack van Poortvliet and Cameron Henderson.

ADVERTISEMENT

He said: “I’m still scratching my head as to how the score was what it was, to be honest. I thought we were much more in the battle from my feeling in the game.

“But when the penalty count is so lop-sided, it just surprised me. I suppose the mindset comes from the very start.

“Because the very first one, when the player went up in the line-out and they held him up in the line-out, that’s a penalty, right? But I don’t know what the mindset is, whether he reset the line-out and gave another one. I cannot understand it. And I suppose that mindset then sets in.

“And there were so many penalties in the first half, it was out of control.”

Follow your favourites in the RugbyPass App

Your home for rugby. Download the RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!


Follow your favourite teams, tournaments and players, and get personalised news and Match Centre notifications direct to your device.


From live rugby streams and upcoming fixtures to breaking news, in-depth analysis and live scores, RugbyPass has everything you need to stay connected to the game.

Visa Priority RWC2027 Ticket Sale: 28 - 30 Sept 2026

Register your ticketing account now for Visa Priority Sale access. Visa sale: 28 - 30 September, 2026

Create Account
Visa Priority Sale: eligible Visa card required. Restrictions apply.
ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

2 Comments
Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

N
NoLongerARuck 1 hour ago
Can the Wallabies evoke the spirit of 2021 to rock the world champions?

The Wallabies lineout is one area where they have maintained high standards throughout the years despite dropping to below 40% in term of win percentage. The Boks didnt get tested there against NZ and I expect Aus to certainly challenge there. This is as good an opportunity that Aus will get against the Boks. Its a new team with plenty of inexperience but Rassie has kept an experienced core for the lineout but Grobbelaars throwing can go awry when under pressure as we have seen in big matches for the Bulls. The Wallabies backline is also stacked with quality and theres some power on the bench too. For the first time in a long time the Wallabies have some depth to call upon and real quality options across the park. Even so this is a different Bok team than the one that exited covid. That team hadnt played in front of a crowd since 2019, had 18 months apart and barely had any cohesion. Their game plan was literally kick scrum and maul throughout the Lions series and the Argentina tests and they were very much a team that regressed since 2019. They had to recover their game and recover their conditioning and that was top of mind for coaches. Having said that the team that runs out this weekend has several green players with few minutes behind them in the past 2 months. They should be short of a gallop. Sure they have been training as a shadow team against the first team Boks but training is no substitute for game time. I expect them to be rusty and to lack cohesion and thats why this a good opportunity for an Australian team building momentum.

47 Go to comments
Close Panel
Close Panel

Edition & Time Zone

{{current.name}}
Set time zone automatically
{{selectedTimezoneTitle}} (auto)
Choose a different time zone
Close Panel

Editions

Close Panel

Change Time Zone

Close
ADVERTISEMENT
Copied to clipboard

Share Article close