'I don’t want that to sound arrogant': Kyle Steyn on 'hard truth' behind Glasgow loss

Glasgow captain Kyle Steyn delivered a devastating verdict on Warriors’ trophy-less season as their hopes of a second URC crown in three years ended with a dispiriting 22-21 semi-final defeat by the Bulls at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Steyn’s two tries – taking his season’s tally to 15 overall for club and country – in a fluent opening quarter appeared to have put Franco Smith’s side well on course for a ‘home’ final back at the national stadium on 20 June.

They led 21-3 after a superb driving maul produced a penalty try after 24 minutes, with Bulls reduced to 14 men as lock Ruan Nortje was sin-binned for collapsing the maul.

But that proved to be the last points Glasgow scored as Bulls weathered the second-row’s absence to gain a foothold via Johan Grobbelaar’s close-range try from a tap penalty while a man short.

Kurt-Lee Arendse’s tap tackle on Kyle Rowe, as the Glasgow wing threatened to escape down the left and extend Warriors’ advantage before the interval, proved to be a pivotal moment as Bulls took full advantage of Scott Cummings’ 43rd-minute yellow card.

Points Flow Chart

Bulls win +1

Time in lead

39

Mins in lead

36

49%

% Of Game In Lead

45%

58%

Possession Last 10 min

42%

0

Points Last 10 min

0

Two tries in his absence from Embrose Papier and Francois Klopper established a 22-21 lead that Bulls held onto for the final 27 minutes, despite Warriors’ increasingly desperate attempts to fashion a winning score.

Head coach Franco Smith lamented a drop-off in defensive intensity and the ruthless streak they had shown before the break, suggesting some players may have subconsciously thought the hard work was done as they started to uncharacteristically “go a bit off script” after the interval, fuelling the Bulls’ belief.

The anguish of letting another golden opportunity slip through their fingers after the earlier setback of losing a tight Champions Cup quarter-final to Toulon at Scotstoun in April, having worked so hard to earn home advantage in the knockout stages, was evident in the obvious distress articulated by captain Kyle Steyn.

“We’re devastated,” admitted the Scotland winger. “There are so many ingredients in it. I want to give massive credit to the Bulls because at 21-3, they could have given up but they stayed in the fight. The hard truth is they came out in the second half and they wanted it more than us. They got to breakdowns before us and at big moments, they just did simple things better than we did.

“That’s what’s really devastating for us as a player group. For all that’s been put into the season, with the squad the size it was, with the challenges stacked the way we were, with how many boys we had away with the national team and the amount of pressure that puts on a squad, for what everyone involved in this group did to get into these kind of games… and then to walk off and feel like we haven’t absolutely left everything out there…the gut feeling is that we lost these games, we weren’t beaten.

“I don’t want that to sound arrogant because again, credit to the Bulls for staying in the fight. But for everything that’s gone into it this season, it was disappointing.

“But I’ve got nothing but gratitude to everybody that’s worn the Warriors badge on their chest this season – the playing group and support staff – and our families, and gratitude for some of the things I’ve felt as a man and as a player out there through the season and being able to share that.”

That playing group will have a different look next season, with six internationals – centre Huw Jones, fly-half Adam Hastings, number eight Jack Dempsey, flanker Sione Vailanu, hooker Johnny Matthews and prop Jamie Bhatti – moving on to pastures new.

While Glasgow have signed Scotland flanker Jamie Ritchie, South African back-rower Ruwald van der Merwe and Western Force utility back Bayley Kuenzle, the rest of the reinforcements in an expanded 42-man squad will be 10 academy graduates, most of whom – such as hooker Seb Stephen, back-rower Macenzzie Duncan and wing Fergus Watson – have already had first-team exposure this term.

Despite the challenges of managing a squad containing around 20 Scotland internationals at any one time, Steyn admits that Glasgow have set a high bar in terms of what constitutes a successful season.

“Yeah, exactly, but the overriding feeling is that, not that it’s not good enough, but we have to take the next step,” he added. “We absolutely have to take this punch on the chin and learn the way we should, but also we’ve been here often enough to know what it takes.

“We’ve got to regroup and when we come back, we’ve got to be hungry and challenge ourselves to show up in more of these moments. If you show up in more of these moments, then you can win these big games.”

Smith also believes that improving Warriors’ “mental resilience” in the biggest matches will be critical if his talented squad are to add to their 2024 URC title.

“It’s not how hard you get hit, it’s how hard you can get hit in the face and move forward. That’s my temperament. It’s our DNA,” he added.

“Nobody will know how much we fought above our weight this season because we won anyway. Are we a champion winning team yet? Maybe not. Maybe some of this disappointment is going to push us over that last hurdle.

“In my book for next season, I already have mental resilience as part of our programme. The execution is there and I think there’s going to be more and more competition as the young guys grow next season. It’s going to allow us to rest some of these players more often, if we’re able to tap into more of the young guys who I think are ready to play at this level.

“With a tough international season – the four games in November and a tough Six Nations with only one break again – hopefully we’ll find strength in our young guys that will allow our back-end-of-the-season campaigners to be very sharp and well rested.

“We have signed 10 young guys and six experienced campaigners are going. I want to build a garden. I don’t want the flower to die. For the long term, we’re going to produce more of the players from Scotland. We want to be competitive.

“We want to be significant, not just successful. Being significant means that you lose sometimes, but how you lose and how you play and what your vision and mission is and your purpose in your environment is what’s more important. There’s definitely a vision.

“It’s the end of a four-year cycle. Usually in the World Cup there’s change in the four-year cycle. Change is a good thing if you do it right. If you wait for everybody to stop playing at the same time or start playing badly at the same time, the plant dies. We would like to build a garden that’s big enough and more youngsters come through and we lift the Scottish competitiveness even more.”