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'We were maybe a wee bit flash at times... we were just a bit soft'

By Jamie Lyall
Dejected Glasgow Warriors

Glasgow Warriors are charting the same rise that led to their only Pro12 title win of 2015, believe Pete Horne and Ryan Wilson.

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Under Gregor Townsend, Glasgow were beaten semi-finalists, runners-up, then champions in successive years.

Dave Rennie’s Warriors were beaten by 18-15 defending champions Leinster in a bruising final at Celtic Park, where streetsmarts, game management and errors proved pivotal.

But Horne and Wilson see encouraging parallels between the vintage of 2015 and the talent emerging in the current squad.

“We touched on that, just saying there’s a wee portion of us that have been through that cycle,” centre Horne said.
“Under Gregor, we made a semi, got beat off Leinster, made the final the next year and lost that, and it made it all the sweeter when we did get there and win it.

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“There are a lot of young men that will be all the better for that experience tonight, especially in the last couple of months, we’ve played some really good rugby, we’ve defended so much better, night and day to where we were at the start of the season. Hopefully next year we can come good.”

Co-captain Wilson added: “We said we were unlucky tonight, but we also said what a great group of young men we’ve got coming through the ranks.

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“It took us two or three shots to finally win it [in 2015], so they’ll learn from this as well. We’re on the way for that, definitely.”

Glasgow’s blisteringly fast, off-loading style under Rennie has often dazzled, but his team’s ability to front up and live with the brutality of champion opposition has not. Warriors were hammered by Scarlets in last season’s semi-final and their Champions Cup campaign was disastrous. Sure, they could score from anywhere, but could they handle the physical oppressiveness of the continent’s biggest beasts?

Leinster celebrate winning the 2018/19 Pro14 title.

The wheels threatened to come off this year when Glasgow lost both festive derbies to Edinburgh and again when they took an almighty pasting from Saracens in the Champions Cup quarter-final two months ago, but that chastening day at Allianz Park and the rollicking Rennie gave his players in the aftermath galvanized them.

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Heading into the final, they had won four in a row, including a stunning win at the RDS, and scored at least 30 points in each victory. On Saturday, they were too loose, made too many fumbles and too many wrong decisions at crucial times. Leinster feasted on their mistakes as the great sides do, but the three-point margin of defeat shows the tightness of the contest.

“In big games we’ve maybe flopped a wee bit in the past. We got pumped off Scarlets this time last year, we got hosed off Saracens in a big game,” Horne said.

“We’re so much harder to beat. We were maybe a wee bit flash at times, we’d score some great tries – even in that Sarries game, we came out of the blocks and scored a great try – but we were just a bit soft.

“We now realise what it takes in big games. You can’t just score a worldie and then you’re not going to score 40-50 points and win 45-30 or whatever. These games are really tight and you’ve got to make it difficult.

“I feel we’ve been doing that recently. Our defence is so much better, we’re a lot harder to break down, and even when we’re not playing that well, we’re hanging in there and giving ourselves opportunities to win games.”

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

33 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

33 Go to comments
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