Glasgow coach left aggrieved at treatment after heroic display

When Glasgow head coach Franco Smith was accentuating the positives from a gut-wrenching injury-time defeat by Ulster in their opening United Rugby Championship fixture on Saturday, defensive resolve was understandably high on his list.

“I think we have made at least 250 tackles and a lot of them on our goal-line, so that is important training done,” the South African observed in his post-match assessment.

In fact, Smith was doing his side a disservice. Their tackle count was considerably more than that. Glasgow’s own figures came up with 327. Data analysts Opta put the Warriors’ tally at 316. That is the second-highest number across the past 15 seasons since Opta started collating data on the URC/Pro14/Pro12/Celtic League in 2009-10.

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The only side to beat that high watermark? Only Glasgow themselves, who made a remarkable 331 tackles in beating Leinster 39-24 at the RDS back in April 2019, on their way to progressing to a Pro14 final that year against the same opposition.

Leinster, incidentally, are the only other team to have made more than 300 tackles in a game in the competition – 306 – against Benetton, also in April 2019, a week before Glasgow set the record in Dublin.

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Chief defender of the Warriors ramparts at the RDS was Scotland lock Jonny Gray, who made a mind-boggling 43 tackles, the highest individual tally recorded in the competition by Opta. Eight different Glasgow players made 20-plus tackles that day, another record.

Last Saturday at Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium there were six, a group including some players – Gregor Hiddleston, Gregor Brown, Zander Fagerson – who only came on as replacements in the second half.

One Warrior even came close to matching Gray’s stratospheric feat of 2019. Flanker Rory Darge made 39 tackles, the joint-second highest in URC history – Ulster’s Sean Reffell also managed the same number against Munster in January 2023.

A winning try on Saturday by Ulster scrum-half Dave Shanahan, with the clock five minutes into the red, ultimately meant Glasgow’s sterling defensive efforts yielded only a solitary losing bonus point from a 20-19 defeat.

And while Warriors defence coach Pete Murchie paid tribute to the hosts’ persistence and skill in continuing to bang on the door until it was eventually crowbarred open after a prolonged siege, he also felt his side earned insufficient reward for their own efforts.

Glasgow conceded a modest nine penalties overall, to Ulster’s ten, but Murchie believes referees – Welshman Adam Jones was the whistler on duty in Belfast – are viewing offences differently depending on where they occur on the field.

“We need to look at how we can apply more pressure but at the same time, I’ve got a question just in general around the refereeing,” Murchie said. “Do they want us to defend the goal-line? Because it seems like as soon as you get to that area of the pitch, there’s only one side of the ball that’s getting refereed, and it’s defence.

“If they genuinely want a contest in the game, then it needs to get refereed that way. So there’s frustration there as well around some of those decisions.

“A lot of the law variations are obviously about speeding up the game and looking at how you can score more tries and get more points, and I get that. It’s important, it’s about entertainment value.

“But it’s a game of contests, isn’t it? And that keeps getting referred to. That’s why we’ve got scrums, that’s why we have lineouts, that’s what stops it from being rugby league. So we want to be able to contest.

“Some teams will roll over when they’re on the goal-line. You can break them down in two or three phases. We pride ourselves on sticking in for as long as it takes and I’m proud of the effort the boys put in – 20, 30 phases at times, a metre out from our line.

“But are we allowed to contest? Are we allowed to defend in that area? That’s something that is obviously frustrating. We’re digging in. You just want there to be a genuine contest and that comes down more to just the general refereeing in that area, around things that would get penalised if it’s in a different area of the pitch, but maybe isn’t getting as closely scrutinised.”

The predatory Darge twice appeared to have got his hands over the ball in a sustained final onslaught from Ulster, but neither time did he earn a turnover penalty.

“There were a couple of times where Rory was on the ball for a considerable amount of time, but didn’t get the call,” Murchie noted. “It’s tough but in that area of the game, we’re in the red, the clock’s gone and from a referee’s perspective it’s got to be clear for them to give it. Essentially, we’ll win the game if the decision gets made. It’s tough.”

Despite lingering frustration at the Ulster endgame, Murchie said “spirits in the camp are fine” as Glasgow turn their attention to Friday’s visit of Benetton, a first URC fixture at Scotstoun since their quarter-final play-off win over Stormers on route to last season’s title.

Lock Scott Cummings is available for selection again after proving his recovery from a foot injury suffered on Scotland’s summer tour, while scrum-half George Horne is also poised to return to the match-day squad.

A decision has yet to be made on number eight Jack Dempsey, who has been nursing a back issue, while centre Huw Jones is “still a week or so away” depending on how his recovery from a calf issue progresses.

“Scott and George would be in the mix,” Murchie said. “‘Demmo’ [Dempsey] could be in the mix. We just need to make sure he’s right. We don’t want him to be carrying stuff going into it. We’ll just check in on how he is.

“Scott trained fully last week. He did a good bit of training on Thursday and Friday when other guys were tapering off for the game [against Ulster]. He’s ready to go.”