Ali Price admits Glasgow Warriors indiscipline but insists Leinster will be 'great challenge'

Glasgow Warriors' Ali Price is tackled by Edinburgh's WP Nel during the 1872 Cup match at BT Murrayfield. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The Warriors have played some inspired rugby at times this season, as has been the case for many years past. But they have only rarely played well throughout a whole game, and that failing has too often cost them against the toughest opponents.

Thanks to that loss at BT Murrayfield, their next opponents are arguably the toughest of all – Leinster, who they visit in the URC quarter-finals at the start of next month. The Dublin side were PRO14 champions last season, and could go into the Glasgow game as kings of Europe, too – they play La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final in Marseille on Saturday.

Scotland scrum-half Price is all too well aware of how demanding a fixture that game will be for his team, but to an extent he feels that the pressure will be off, given Leinster’s status as overwhelming favourites for the game. “We’re going to go there as underdogs, we know that,” he said. “We’ve got nothing to lose.

“They’re obviously at the peak of their powers at the moment. They’ve got their European final this week then we’ve got our shot at them the next week.

“It’s a great challenge. I don’t think there’s a better team in European rugby at the moment. It’s 15 v 15, isn’t it?”

Poor discipline has been a problem for Glasgow both this season and last, and on the evidence of Saturday’s 1872 Cup loss – a defeat which also means they will only be playing in the Challenge Cup rather than the Champions Cup next season – they are no closer to learning how to conduct themselves more appropriately. It has become a vicious circle for them: they fail to hit top form in a match, they start to feel frustrated, they give away needless penalties and fall behind, in the process simply becoming more frustrated.

“Against Edinburgh our discipline cost us,” Price accepted. “There were daft penalties all over the place. Mine at the bottom of a ruck – that’s a daft penalty. Some of the pushing and shoving… Little things like that are in our control and against Edinburgh especially we could have been better.

“We need over the next couple of weeks to work on what’s not going right for us. We train well, look great in training, but we’re not quite getting out there on the pitch for any length of time that means we get over the line in these games.

“That’s frustrating and it’s frustrating for everyone. We need to look at ourselves, work hard over the next couple of weeks, and try to put what we train out on the pitch in Dublin.

“If you’re on a winning run it’s obviously a lot better than if you’ve had some tough games and tough defeats. We just have to look at ourselves, to be honest. You can’t make too many excuses about the last month or so – we just need to be better.

“There is no bigger challenge than the one we have in two weeks’ time, going up against Leinster in Dublin. That’s the challenge now and we’ll see what happens off the back of that.”

Danny Wilson chews over what's gone wrong v Edinburgh