1
Glasgow coach says Premiership clubs success is due to more depth
English Premiership sides won seven out of eight games in the Investec Champions’ Cup this past weekend, and there is a firm belief that part of this success comes as a positive from the tough financial year that some clubs had.
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The fact that England lost three clubs over the past two years – Worcester, Wasps and London Irish – all closed their doors leaving them a 10-club league meant that a number of players have bolstered other English clubs in the meantime, and as a direct consequence English clubs have had their squad depth bolstered by this.
One of the coaches who has picked up on this trend is former Springbok assistant and current Glasgow Warriors coach Franco Smith, whose side lost to Northampton in round one at home at the Scotstoun and will now need to make up for it in their round two fixture against Bayonne this coming weekend.
Smith, when asked about the trend, said it certainly had an effect on the strength of English clubs.
“It definitely has had an effect. They could still fit a lot more players into their budget because the value of the players adapted to fit the budget and because there are so many players available, everybody’s price dropped a bit.
“So with the same budget you can have more players in your squad. I do think that plays a role.”
Investec Champions Cup
Pool 1
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Bordeaux
1
1
0
0
5
2
Bristol
1
1
0
0
5
3
Bulls
1
1
0
0
4
4
Lyon
1
0
1
0
2
5
Saracens
1
0
1
0
0
6
Connacht
1
0
1
0
0
Pool 2
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Toulouse
1
1
0
0
5
2
Bath
1
1
0
0
5
3
Harlequins
1
1
0
0
5
4
Racing 92
1
0
1
0
2
5
Ulster
1
0
1
0
0
6
Cardiff Rugby
1
0
1
0
0
Pool 3
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Northampton
1
1
0
0
4
2
Exeter Chiefs
1
1
0
0
4
3
Bayonne
1
0
0
1
2
4
Munster
1
0
0
1
2
5
Toulon
1
0
1
0
1
6
Glasgow
1
0
1
0
0
Pool 4
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Leicester
1
1
0
0
5
2
Sale
1
1
0
0
4
3
Leinster
1
1
0
0
4
4
La Rochelle
1
0
1
0
1
5
Stormers
1
0
1
0
0
6
Stade Francais
1
0
1
0
0
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While South African sides won four out of five in the Champions’ Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup on the weekend, generally there were some disappointing results across the board for teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
Smith believes this is an anomaly and that the situation will rectify itself as the competition’s league rounds play out.
“I also find it strange, I don’t have the answer right now, but even Connacht losing with 40 points at home made it interesting. The URC teams were a little bit off things this weekend, which is not normal. Usually in this competition the URC results were a bit of a surprise for me, but in our case there are enough controllables from our side that weren’t done well and that we can rectify.
“But yes, it is definitely evident that the Premiership teams did well. Usually the French teams give the first two rounds a go, and if they see they are in it, they give it a go, but if they lose they play less competitive teams.”
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With the Glasgow coach unhappy at the way his side performed at home, failing to get a losing bonus point at the end, the pressure is on when they travel to France this weekend.
“It was a tough result in the end. We got better as the game went on. I think we were a little bit shell-shocked at the beginning of the game. I thought Northampton did very well. They are a very good attacking side and asked questions in the right areas – we kicked poorly in the first half and couldn’t get out of our half, the wind was in our face. I thought the kick-chase didn’t back the kicking game up.
“After the halftime talk we had much better actions. At times we attacked far better than we have attacked at times this season. Our setpiece was unsettled by them and they came with a definite plan to unsettle us there. We have our own introspection to do, but I thought they were quite well prepared and a quality side. It is hard to measure the Premiership against the Top 14 and URC so they just made the point from the start that it is tough to play us here and they just came with a plan.”
The anomaly of results saw the away sides in Glasgow’s group do very well. Bayonne forced a draw against URC champions Munster while Exeter came from behind to stun Toulon on their home ground.
In a tournament where home teams tend to dominate, this was also a turn-up for the books.
But that gives Smith hope ahead of the Bayonne trip, and he is still smiling.
“Hopefully that is a good sign because we’re going to Bayonne this weekend. We will give it a full go there again,” he smiled.
Comments on RugbyPass
Finau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
18 Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
3 Go to commentsDude to me looks pretty fast for a big man, nearly 2m and 130kg, in his workout vid he was signed off. Possibly a bit slow on his reads movement wise though, but I’ve not got anything to compare him to. Hope the dude nails it and finds his sport, could have been a devastating lock in rugby if he wasn’t a footballer growing up.
4 Go to commentsWell, does that make it every year Moana has lost it’s best player the following year? Normally it’s more immediate I guess, at least there best player had a follow up year this time.
1 Go to commentsFinally, an answer to Dan Carter.
1 Go to commentsNever read such tripe. He was hit just as he passed the ball which was reviewed and deemed legal by yes the Australian TMO and referee
18 Go to commentsTerrible idea…will be too hot, no one will travel, fan zones will be promised nice cold guinness and last minute will get water. Also how do you squeeze this into the already busy battle rhythm, Prem, summer series, 6 nations & world cup….if, and its a big IF you’re going to do this, do it in a rugby nation.
2 Go to commentsWell let’s hope world rugby doesn't read some of this nonsense, because next on the agenda will be…“players will only tackle other players deemed to be in their weight class, and only with moderate velocity”.
18 Go to commentsI was never allowed to adjust boots, or ever replaced, while I was playing and staying on the field. If I had issues, I had to go to the sideline and fix them myself. Then I would ask the ref to get back in. That would really make you deal with it FAST!
4 Go to commentsGreat point. It would be terrible to have a card for poor tackling cost the all blacks a world cup. Oh hi all blacks captain Sam Cane, how you going?
18 Go to commentsI like Andy’s critical approach to all hot issues especially when it comes to the rugby big “bosses”. However, sorry Andy, I don’t support your “we shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of Karl Dickson or any other official”. May I ask why? They do have a lot of responsibility, but they are people like us with all their sins and weaknesses. We have to respect their decision during the games, but why they became untouchable afterwards and people cannot even criticize them and the ones, who does express their concerns, got punished for publicly analyzing their mistakes and asking questions. If they believe they did right, there shouldn’t be a problem for any of the refs to answer these “questions” publicly. I don’t really remember such cases. However, I do remember how Craig Joubert shown his running skills in 2015 or Pascal Gauzere shined in Cardiff in 2021. I do believe that Rassie, as anybody else, had a full right to share his vision of Nic Berry’s performance the same year. I do not support the hate in any form especially in public one, but creating the cast of untouchable refs and rugby bosses is not for me. As for Karl, he had all means to question his appointment for the game and since I don’t now whether he did it, blaming just RFU wouldn’t be quite correct at this moment. I love the game of rugby and almost every time I watch it I don’t support any team, I just wanna see the good game and fair referring. Sorry, Karl. last Saturday you got my Craig Joubert”s award of the round. It is up to Karl to prove that I am wrong, not to Andy or RFU’s corporate bla-bla-bla. Something like that…
1 Go to commentswell remember the blues had a guy called jed rowlands for a season. remember scott took his coaching team with him give him time
15 Go to commentswell maybe he needs to be introduced to darcy swain then who never got anything much and put a cheifs ands allblack player out injured and made him miss a season recovering
18 Go to commentswell maybe the match offficals should sort it out if they are worried about it and stop the clock
4 Go to commentsI totally agree. I also believe that minor injuries unless dangerous must be treared OFF the field of play and the game continue with a temp replacement if necessary.
4 Go to commentsSend the bill to McLennan.
3 Go to comments2 out of 3 were perfect. TMOs love jumping in on anything outside the law. The fact they saw nothing wrong speaks volumes. You want to see what a late blindside hit looks like, watch Kepu take out Carter in the 2015 World Cup final. Completely different to the Tah’s tackle.
18 Go to commentsverkeerde kant van die gereg lol
5 Go to commentsJust like John Plumtree at the Sharks he has had a poor start to this season’s coaching gig, but now it looks like he is starting to pull them back also having won 1 game in the first Eleven games they played. It obviously helps that 11 of his fifteen are Springbok players. But now they are starting to improve. No ways they can make it to the playoffs this year but they probably used this season as a way to figure out their game plan. One query I have and I think quite a few people have is: Are they playing better simply because of their international players are back or is it the team strategy led by Rob Penney that is starting to tick? Well I guess we wait and see. Also if it doesn't work out this season, it might be that Rob Penney is using this season as a way to organize himself for next season. Getting all his combinations sorted, his team strategies sorted and figuring out who is best is which position. Now I don't follow Super Rugby any more having now a full focus in the URC but I was surprised about the current Crusaders stats.
15 Go to commentsIf I’m a little bloke, who’s just had possession of the ball, I should expect to get cleaned up by Samipeni Finau if he’s opposite me and I do nothing to avoid him. FTFY You’ll need to rewrite the rest of your article now Hamish Bidwell. I’m not sorry for having missed reading this one. I find it hilarious it’s only the static aussie 10s, just waiting there, that are getting smashed. Move on your feet guys, haven’t you watched DMac and Mounga play for the last decade ffs. Chin up, at least your smiles should return when BB returns to SR next year and there’s more 10s to the fodder.
18 Go to comments