Heineken Cup: All-action Welsh determined to finish Glasgow’s Cup season on a high after Leinster disappointment

By DAVID FERGUSON
Published on Saturday 21 January 2012 04:12

IF YOU were to choose a player in the Glasgow team that had made 16 tackles in the Heineken Cup match defeat to Leinster it is unlikely that Jon Welsh would be high up in the list.

Add to that the fact that his front-row ally Ed Kalman put in an astonishing 23 tackles – an openside flanker emerges pleased with his day if he reaches 15 – and one begins to get a sense both of the spirit being fostered in Glasgow this season and the work that went into Sunday’s match, and ultimate defeat to Leinster.

Glasgow did play much better than has been the case in previous Heineken Cup matches, including the opening-day win over Bath, but as they finish the campaign with quarter-final dreams now a distant memory and a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals reliant on other results going their way, Welsh lifted the lid on the attitude of the squad. There are various permutations, but the most likely route for Glasgow to the Amlin last eight is for the Scots to win in Bath and Northampton to lose at home to Munster and Castres beat Scarlets in France.

Coach Sean Lineen said this week that he had selected the same team for the Bath match that lost at the weekend, largely because of the way they reacted to that loss in the dressing room afterwards.

Welsh explained: “I went for a player appearance with Ed [Kalman] and we were getting so many plaudits for how well we played. I turned round to Ed and said ‘We’re getting so much praise here for a game we lost’. And the main message in the changing room afterwards was that we don’t want to be brave losers; we want to be a team that comes out on the right side of these tight games, whether the opposition are the Heineken Cup champions or not.

“OK, we played out of our skins and there were a lot of bruised bodies, but that was effectively for nothing. We got a bonus point, but we lost, and that was the main message, without being too negative.

“It wasn’t shouting and bawling, but we’re a team that has the ambition to be in the [RaboDirect PRO12] play-offs at the end of the season and in Europe we have ambitions and that was a crunch game for us at the weekend. Whether we played really well or not we lost the game. It’s nice fans saying well done and to hear their appreciation for what you’re doing, but personally and for the whole team we lost.”

Much as with the case in the other ‘Scotland-England’ affair at Murrayfield tomorrow, Glasgow go in with a strong side and face an English team suffering from a European malaise this season. Ian McGeechan’s side are bottom of Pool Three with just one win from five matches and also languish tenth in the Aviva Premiership.

They only just pipped Glasgow on the last occasion the Warriors were in the scenic English city, yet felt cheated losing at Firhill after a wicked bounce set up Richie Gray for a match-winning try, and remain a side packed with talent and capable of stuffing Glasgow if the Scots are off the pace.

McGeechan is resting some key men, however, making eight changes to the side that lost by two points in Montpellier last weekend. Scotland ‘A’ cap Jack Cuthbert returns at full-back, Matt Carraro to the wing and Tom Biggs lines up against Tommy Seymour. Olly Barkley and Matt Banahan present a formidable centre pairing for a battle with Stuart Hogg and Graeme Morrison that should produce fireworks, while All Black Stephen Donald is partnered by Chris Cook at half-back for the first time.

Former Scotland No 8 Simon Taylor is among a strong group of replacements – Lee Mears, David Flatman, Anthony Perenise, Francois Louw, Claassens, Tom Heathcote and Sam Vesty.

Typifying the Glasgow spirit, however, Welsh is eager for the challenge. He swapped to the other side of the scrum after Kalman suffered a head injury towards the end of last week’s game and, after battling Mike Ross, said he enjoyed “four or five scrums” on the tighthead against 19-stone South African Heinke van der Merwe.

He was disappointed not to see his name in the Scotland Six nations squad, and now back to his old bullish self after a year ruined by rib, shoulder and knee injuries, that remains a clear target.

“You could say I was disappointed [not to be selected in Scotland squad] but I just need to concentrate on what I’ve got here at Glasgow,” he said. “We’re having a great season as a club right now and, if I focus on that, hopefully the rest will come from that.

“I enjoyed the challenge [of tighthead]. But it was only four or five scrums so I’m not getting ahead of myself. Now it’s all about Bath. We know Bath are a big English side. They have the big names, so it will be a big task, but we have to go out and show that it wasn’t just the luck of a bounce that won us the game last time.”

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John Brown

Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 08:58 AM

Cannot believe that Welsh is not in Scotland squad, nor indeed Pat McArthur! Welsh is the best Scottish loose head prop available.

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