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Fissler Confidential: Future of two Springbok halfbacks up in air
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Glasgow's league form warning going into URC knockouts
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Glasgow coach Franco Smith has hailed finishing top of the BKT United Rugby Championship “a massive achievement” after the toughest season yet in the competition. His team sealed first place by claiming a 26-22 bonus point victory over Ulster in Belfast with wing Kyle Rowe scoring the match-winning try four minutes from time.
They will now be at home to Connacht in the quarter-finals as they look to repeat their 2024 title triumph. “It’s a tough season,” said the South African Smith. “To stay on top of these teams is a massive achievement for my players, the club and the coaches. I am very happy. It’s arguably the toughest competition this year that we’ve ever been part of.
“The players have worked really, really hard in terms of their effort. They got stuck in.”
Reflecting on the hard-fought encounter with Ulster, he said: “We wanted five points out of this game. That was the mission. There is still a lot to work on. We got held up three times over the line. Executing those opportunities is going to be massive in play-off rugby.
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“It’s a case now of drawing a line under the season. We enjoyed it, fantastic, but it’s now something of the past. The play-offs are quite different from the round robin.”
Giving his thoughts on the late Belfast triumph, skipper Kyle Steyn said: “It went right down to the death, but how good. I don’t think we’ve won here since 2013. We won, we got five points, we are top of the log, the boys dug deep, I couldn’t be prouder. It feels good, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t go and get it done now.”
Full back Josh McKay added: “Full credit to Ulster, they are unreal. They go to the well for each other, that’s for sure and that’s obviously why they are in the Challenge Cup final. But we got through and we are stoked to finish first. There’s definitely a belief in this team. We felt like we sort of lost a bit of what we are about over in South Africa and we’ve just been working super hard to try and get that back as we build into the play-offs.”
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